She was the wife of American politician and military officer Richard Gentry who became Columbia's first mayor.
Their child arrived while her husband was serving under General William Henry Harrison on Lake Erie during the War of 1812.
In 1818, she rode sidesaddle carrying the youngest of her four children from Madison County, Kentucky to St. Louis, Missouri.
Thomas Hart Benton helped her secure her historic appointment as postmistress after her husband died in 1837 fighting in the Second Seminole War.
Her husband had been Columbia's second postmaster, running it from one corner of their tavern.