Katherine Anne Porter
Kyle, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(May 15, 1890 - September 18, 1980) Katherine Anne Porter, one of America's most distinguished writers of fiction, was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Brown County, Texas. Her mother, Mary Alice Jones Porter, died in 1892, and her father, Harrison Boone Porter (1858-1942) returned with the children to his native Hays County to live with his mother, Catherine Ann Skaggs Porter (1826-1901). Porter spent her childhood in Kyle and attended the public schools here. Following a brief failed marriage, she left Texas in 1915. She went to Chicago and, using the name she adopted from her grandmother, became a journalist. She traveled throughout the world and began her writing career. Porter's first book of short stories, "Flowering Judas and Other Stories," was published in 1930. Considered a preeminent writer of short stories, she published another collection, "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" in 1939. Her acclaimed 1962 novel "Ship of Fools" was followed by the Pulitzer prize-winning "The Collected Stores of Katherine Anne Porter" in 1965. Porter returned to Texas to visit her former homes in her later years and, according to her request, upon her death her ashes were interred next to her mother's grave in the Indian Creek Cemetery. (1990)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born Callie Russell Porter in 1890, the future writer spent her Texas childhood in Kyle after her mother's death, raised in part by the grandmother whose name she would later adopt. She left the state in 1915, became a journalist, and rose to the front rank of American fiction with collections like "Flowering Judas" and "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Collected Stories." By her wish, her ashes were returned to Texas to rest beside her mother's grave.
Why it matters
Katherine Anne Porter stands among the great American short-story writers of the twentieth century, and this town shaped the voice she carried to the world.
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