Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Katherine Hilliard Bennett Young

Katherine Hilliard Bennett Young
Or Kitty as her brother John called her in the Rondeau just posted. She is my paternal great-grandmother. I cherish my grandmother's locket that has a picture of Kitty (her mother) and Lawrence (her son and my father) in it. I framed a newpaper article Kitty wrote for the Buffalo Courier interviewing a female drummer (traveling salespeople).

I also have several of her books with correspondence and clippings stashed inside. Inserted in one of the books, Wild Earth and Other Poems by Padraic Colum, are several letters from the poet including some interesting discussion of the unrest in Ireland and how his friend (whom my great-grandmother admired) was executed for treason. The poet inscribed the book with the following blessing:

May the Olden
One whom Fairy
Women nurtured
Thro' seven ages,
Bring you seven
Waves of Fortune!

For Katherine Hilliard Young
Padriaic Colum
April 1921

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