Monday, December 18, 2006

Memories of Katherine Anne Porter



I'm still moving things from the college from which I retired four years ago and taking them to storage. Today I ran across some things I thought might be interesting to one or two of you.

First is a photo of the grave marker in the Indian Creek Cemetery, a few miles out of Brownwood, Texas.

When she spoke in Brownwood, Texas, in 1976, Miss Porter told several of us that she had bought a wooden casket in Mexico and that she wanted to be buried in it. She said she kept it in a closet of her apartment. Later that year, Charlotte Laughlin, an English teacher at Howard Payne University, visited Miss Porter and took the photo at the bottom.

After her death in 1980, Miss Porter was cremated. I have no idea whether the casket was used. For some reason her mortal remains weren't returned to the Indian Creek Cemetery where she wished to be buried until 1981. Here's the April 5, 1981, bulletin from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Brownwood, and you can see the mention of Miss Porter in the middle photo. Click on it a couple of times for a good enlargement.


5 comments:

Elizabeth Foxwell said...

Katherine Anne Porter left her papers to University of Maryland; the Katherine Anne Porter room in UM's Hornbake Library also contains some of her personal furnishings.

For further info:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/ARCV/litmss/kaproom.html

Anonymous said...

A good friend of mine named Melissa Falcon was writer-in-residence at the Katherine Anne Porter House, maybe four or five years ago. Maybe it's been longer than that.

Unknown said...

I believe the KAP house is in Kyle, which is where she lived after Indian Creek.

Anonymous said...

It is kind of remarkable that the church bulletin finds the citation of the two deaths just that much more important than the men's potluck.

Anonymous said...

melissa falcon is a half baked wanna be - don't give her shelf time with the likes of KAP