Porter, Katherine Anne

(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)

Porter, Katherine Anne is a historical marker in Kyle, Hays County, dedicated in 1990. It is one of 124 historical markers documented in Hays County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 184 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.9893, -97.8801 near Kyle. The nearest cataloged historic site is Cora Jackman Donalson House (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Kyle Auction Oak, First Baptist Church of Kyle, and Young, D. A..

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5209010310. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.