Penny Parker was the heroine of a series of 17 books written by Mildred Wirt (Benson) and published from 1939 through 1947. Penny was a high school student turned sleuth who also sporadically worked as a reporter for her father's newspaper, The Riverview Star. Her mother, similar to Nancy Drew's, had died some years before, so she was raised by the Parker housekeeper, Mrs. Weems. On her cases she is sometimes aided by her close friend, brunette Louise Sidell, and occasionally Jerry Livingston or Salt Sommers who were, respectively, a reporter and photographer for her father's paper.