Kate Slaughter McKinney

Kate Slaughter McKinney (February 6, 1859 – March 2, 1939) was a writer and poet who used the pen-name of Katydid. In 1931, she was elected Poet Laureate of the State of Alabama.

Kate Slaughter McKinney

Early life

Kate Slaughter was born in London, Kentucky, on February 6, 1859, the daughter of James Love Slaughter and Lucinda Jane Price.[1][2] Her father was born in Booneville, Kentucky, and later moved to London and Richmond, Kentucky. From her father's side she was the great-granddaughter of Gov. Gabriel Slaughter and from her mother side she was the great-granddaughter of Gov. James Garrard. Her great-uncle was Gen. Theo Garrard.[3]

She first attended schools in Kirksville, Kentucky, and then graduated in 1876 from the Daughters' College, Harrodsburg, Kentucky.[1][3]

Career

Kate Slaughter McKinney wrote verses since she was fifteen years of age. The first were published in The Courier-Journal, from which they found a way into the leading newspapers and magazines.[1]

McKinney got her inspiration from the trees and the flowers and the brooks. Her Kentucky home stood out with frequency in the pages of her published volume, Katydid's Poems (1887).[1] Her other books are: Palace of Silver (1927), The Silent Witness, a Tale of a Kentucky Tragedy (1906), The Weed by the Wall (1911).[2]

She had a lyric gift, and her poems had melody and sweetness.[1]

In 1931 she was elected Poet Laureate of the State of Alabama.[2]

Personal life

On May 7, 1878, she became the wife of James Isaac McKinney, the superintendent of the L. & N. R. R. in Montgomery, Alabama.[1][2]

She died in Montgomery on March 2, 1939, and is buried at Buffalo Springs Cemetery, Stanford, Kentucky.[4][5]

References
  1. Willard, Frances Elizabeth, 1839–1898; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820–1905 (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton. p. 488. Retrieved August 8, 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. "McKINNEY, KATE SLAUGHTER, 1859–1939". Retrieved September 24, 2017.
  3. Secrist, M. (2012). Laurel County, Kentucky: History Revealed Through Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Its Ancestors. Lulu Press, Inc. p. 100. ISBN 9781105500381. Retrieved September 24, 2017.
  4. "librivox". Retrieved September 24, 2017.
  5. "Mrs. Kate S. McKinney". Montgomery Advertiser. March 4, 1939. p. 2. Retrieved July 22, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
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