Kate King, In Fact and Fiction is the story of the survival of a young woman from Blue Springs, Jackson County, Missouri, named Sarah Catherine King who, at the outbreak of the Civil War, became intimately involved with the notorious Confederate guerrilla leader, William Clarke Quantrill. Her love affair was exciting and tumultuous; but, brief. At the age of 17, she found herself widowed and alone in St. Louis, Missouri. Alienated from her family, Sarah subsisted by the oldest known profession and became madam "Kate Clarke." Motherhood led Kate from her "Den of Social Evil" to a nearly 20-year period of anonymity when she assumed a new identity and life in Oklahoma Territory. Eventually, Kate, as "Mrs. Batson," helped to raise a grandson who would grow up to earn his own accomplished recognition. In her last years as "Mrs. Sarah Head," when Kate ended up at the Jackson County Poor Farm, her life and legend continued. Even in death, a shroud of mystery ensued. Kate King, In Fact and Fiction seeks to separate truth from fantasy . . . reality from assumption . . . to stimulate expanded interest and increased scrutiny of all aspects of this most intriguing character with local and national historical importance.