The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850. Raised in St. Louis, Missouri she had may female montors. Kate had many strong widows from her great-grandmother right to her mother. When she turned five her parents sent her to the Academy of the Sacred Heart. There she only attended about two months of schooling before she was forced to return home because of the sudden death of her father. Eh was a very successful business man who was one of the founders of the Pacific Railroad. He was aboard this train on its journey over the gasconade Bridge when it collapsed killing many of its passengers. Her mother was only 27 when her husband, 50, had been killed in the accident. "She may have been depressed, yet liberated by the news."(Angel 2) Kate's mother was only 16 when she was married to her husband. They had six children together, and the seventh one being from the husband's previous marriage. All of Kate's female role models were widowed at a very young age. Kate's grandmother had a big influence on her. She taught Kate about music, history, and French. She used to tell Kate to live life clearly and fearlessly. At the young age of 19 she met her husband Oscar Chopin. They married on June 9, 1870 and had a three month honeymoon in Europe. When they came back they had moved into a home in New Orleans, but moved back north in 1879 because of her husbands failing business. After 12 years of marriage she was widowed, when her husband died when he contracted swamp fever. Bye the time Kate was 24 she had already lost all of her brothers and sisters. And in 1883 she decided to move with all 6 of her children back up to St. Louis. This is when Kate began to write. She was getting grieving comfort from a family physician that told her it would help to start writing to express her anger and disappointment with life. "She never actually was able to live off her earnings from writing, but she supported her family with income