Jennie was the second daughter, and second youngest of the Gates family. She was born to Dr. Joseph and Jenny Gates on July 20, 1907 in Kenyon, Minnesota.

She was an active student in school participating in concerts and playing the piano. In 1922 she survived a critical bout of pneumonia following an appendicitis operation.

Jennie became a registered nurse. On the 1930 census she was listed as working at Saint Lucas hospital.

Jennie married John Donald Hedges. They had a stillborn son in 1939 and another son, John Russell Hedges, in 1944.

John died January 3, 1964 at the age of 58. Jennie outlived him for 34 years. She died in Faribault, Minnesota on March 15, 1998 at the age of 90.