Katherine Anne Porter

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. There's a name on this marker that starts simple enough, Callie Russell Porter, born May 15, 1890, in Indian Creek, Texas. But the world would come to know her by something else entirely: Katherine Anne Porter.

Now, Indian Creek didn't hold her long. After her mother passed in 1892, the family moved to Hays County, and the years kept moving right along with them. By 1915, Katherine Anne had made up her mind.

She left Texas. And when she left, she left wide open, working as an actress, a teacher, a reporter, a publicist, touching down in Chicago, Denver, Mexico, New York. You get the feeling this was a woman who was always arriving somewhere new and already thinking about what she'd write when she got there.

That first book of short stories came out in 1930, and the literary world started paying attention in a serious way. Then came 1962, and a novel called Ship of Fools, which drew the kind of acclaim that follows a writer who has been quietly earning it for decades. And then, 1965, The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Not bad for a girl born Callie Russell Porter in a small Texas community. She passed on September 18, 1980. And here's the part that'll sit with you.

Her ashes were carried back to Indian Creek Cemetery and buried right next to her mother's grave. The woman who left Texas in 1915 and circled the whole wide world, she came home to the place where it all began.

What the marker says

(May 15, 1890-September 18, 1980) Born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Katherine Anne Porter moved to Hays County with her family following her mother's death in 1892. She left Texas in 1915 and worked as an actress, teacher, reporter, and publicist in such places as Chicago, Denver, Mexico, and New York. Her first book of short stories was published in 1930. Her acclaimed 1962 novel "Ship of Fools", was followed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter" in 1965. Upon her death in 1980, her ashes were buried next to her mother's grave in Indian Creek Cemetery. (1990)