The legendary Betsy Dowdy may not have existed. But the question of the young Revolutionary War heroine’s existence is no matter to children’s book author and professor Kitty Griffin.

“The fact that her story has survived, for me, that makes it real,” says Griffin, author of “The Ride: The Legend of Betsy Dowdy,” a children’s book that will be read today at Museum of the Albemarle in celebration of Constitution Week.

Constitution Week began last Friday and runs through Thursday. It is an institution that was launched by the organization, Daughters of the American Revolution. The ladies of DAR — they are all decedents of colonial-era Americans — began this celebration to keep the importance of the U.S. Constitution in the forefront of the minds of children, primarily, and Americans in general.

Locally, there is the Betsy Dowdy Chapter of DAR. They began back in 1938 and named themselves after the teen girl of legend.

Betsy Dowdy was thought to be the daughter of a Currituck Outer Banks salvager — land pirate in some stories — and fisherman. When she heard of the looming battle of Great Bridge over in Virginia, legend has it that she mounted her black Banker pony Black Bess and made a monumental, if not nearly impossible, 51 mile ride from Corolla to Perquimans County, through treacherous swamp land, at night.

The purpose of the ride was to alert North Carolina militia Gen. William Skinner that British troops were amassing for a fight in nearby Virginia. Griffin’s colorfully illustrated book faithfully captures Dowdy’s legend, telling the story of a female American Revolution hero.

“My goal was to show a strong girl doing the one thing she could to help save what she loved and make it an entry point to the American Revolution (for young children),” said Griffin in an interview last week from her home in Venetia, Pa.

Griffin was a longtime high school history teacher. She loves history, understands it as a discipline and knows how to do her research.

After her second daughter graduated from university, Griffin says she announced to her husband that it was her turn to go back to college. She attended Chatham University where she received her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. She is now a professor of children’s literature at the same university.

Like a great many folks from Pittsburg, Pa., says Griffin, she and her family have enjoyed vacationing along North Carolina’s Outer Banks for years. It was in Kill Devil Hills where she first came in contact with the legend of Betsy Dowdy through a book.

“As a history teacher, I didn’t know about her,” said Griffin, who added that she “tucked the idea away.”

After she became a published children’s author, Griffin began toying with the idea of a book about Dowdy. But in true history teacher form, she would not venture into writing a piece of children’s fiction without first doing extensive research into the subject.

She contacted the late Tom Butchko, then the curator for Museum of the Albemarle. With Butchko’s help, Griffin was able to work with DAR members Shirley Spaeth (see related story this page) and Elizabeth Van Doren. She also worked with local wildlife expert Chandler Sawyer.

“The details,” Griffin said, “even in the illustrations are historically correct.”

In fact, the illustrations have been done by two-time Caldecott winner, Marjorie Priceman.

Griffin says she took great pain in making certain that although this is an illustrated children’s book, the information in the book is historically accurate.

Regardless of whether or not the legend is true, she says she was determined to give children the opportunity to know the story and the history of the period for what it was.

“Even the flag, we wanted it to be correct,” said Griffin. “We wanted to make sure all of the detail was as close to real as we could get them.”

Insofar as the story being true or not, while the question did not make any difference to the author’s desire to write the book, it is a source of fascination for her and countless other history buffs.

In an interview with DAR member Shirley Spaeth, the 90-year-old Elizabeth City woman says that while there is no documentation to verify the girl’s existence, she is certain that one-day proof will surface.

However, the ride that Dowdy took was treacherous and there is some doubt that a ride such as that could have been made successfully.

“No one has ever duplicated the ride,” she said. “The ride would have been brutal.”

Griffin said there are other children’s books in the works based upon stories mined here in the Albemarle. She says she is beginning to research famed poet Robert Frost’s time lost in the Dismal Swamp.

She has also written a young adult novel titled “Gretel,” a look at what happens when someone you trust dumps you in the woods to be captured by a witch that would rather eat your brother. She’s still waiting on word from the publisher.

In the meantime, you can meet Griffin at Museum of the Albemarle today, 3 p.m. in the Gaither Auditorium where she will dedicate the reading of her book to the late Tom Butchko. You can also find her book at the museum gift shop.