The Girl Who Came Through Vickery Gate

About the Book

The Girl Who Came through Vickery Gate is a true story of a rare romance that travels through a couple’s love and incredible life beginning from the first moment Dottie Williamson enters the gate at Kings Point Academy and meets Jim Plessinger until her last breath, when she passes through another gate.

Jim and Dottie were soul mates and were happily married for almost sixty-one years. Dottie comes to the United States Merchant Marine Academy in New York to meet Jim on a blind date put in motion by a chance meeting of their fathers and attend the Saturday activities consisting of a football game, tea, and dance on October 30, 1948.  When Dottie walks through Vickery Gate, Jim is done for.

“She saw me there, so she came up and put her right hand up and said, ‘I’m Dottie.’ I put my hand out and I held her hand. I looked in her eyes and said to myself, ‘I will never, ever let go of this hand in this world and the next.’ I was absolutely smitten, just blown away.”

So much so that on that first date, the skinny young man summoned the nerve to give Dottie a lingering kiss, profess his love, and propose marriage during the last dance.

Stunned, she ran.

“I didn’t know where I was,” Jim said, spending the next few days in a heartbroken stupor. “I had poured out my heart.” But then there came a letter from Mount Ida College, where Dottie was studying, to say that she had a wonderful time and would very much like to see him.

The poor Jim met Dottie’s wealthy family and was surprised when she happily drove to his family’s flat to meet his parents. Dating right up until Jim’s graduation from Kings Point, they married nine days after on December 22, 1951.

This relationship survives Jim spending a year at sea; becoming a Naval Officer; unemployment; moving; the loss of their first child, Susan; having two other daughters Diane and Sally; and becoming a lawyer at almost forty years old in Connecticut and later on in California. Dottie, who “never failed to get a job within an hour,” managed to be a doting mother, charming hostess, and eventually a real estate agent. Then that shattering day comes. Dottie dies in Jim’s arms, leaving this world here on earth from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

About the Author

Author James Allen Plessinger
First-time author James A. Plessinger graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and achieved the rank of a full Lieutenant in the US Navy. James received a Doctor of Law degree from UConn School of Law. He participated in over four thousand civil and criminal cases in the states of California, and Connecticut, as a trial attorney since his admission into the Connecticut Bar in 1967, and the California Bar approximately in 1986. James was licensed to practice in all California State and Federal Courts, including the California Supreme Court. During a custody appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1979, James created a Bill of Rights for Children, which found its way into law books. At one time, the published case became the leading case regarding international custody. A great storyteller with a sense of humor, he penned his memoirs during his eighty-fourth year of life alongside his daughter as he remembered and relived memories he was excited to tell. James was a dedicated supporter of many charities with Dorothy, and both were lifetime members of the Episcopal Church. In later years, they were active members of Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Roseville, California. 

Author Diane Frances Colby
First-time author Diane, with her father, James Plessinger, during the last year of his life and their last year together—not knowing that it would be—writes her first book. A second book was in progress. What began as a journal and storytelling between father and daughter became much more. Diane graduated from Syracuse University with a BS degree, where she went on in business,  retail buying, and promotion. Diane later obtained a California real-estate license in 1988, where she was an effective communicator, trainer, and received several awards in her field. After leaving her native state of Connecticut, she has enjoyed Northern California with her sons and animals. Diane and her father spoke of the hope of this book speaking out to the much-needed cure for Alzheimer’s disease, and the day those in such despair are healed.