Cather, Frances Amanda Smith (1845-1922) (“Franc”). Cather’s aunt. Born in Boston, MA, Franc graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, MA, in 1870. Franc worked both as a private tutor and as a teacher at Winchester Female Institute in Winchester, VA. In 1873 she and George Cather married and moved to Webster County in Nebraska, where they raised their five children—Grosvenor, Blanche, Carrie, and twins Frank and Oscar. Willa and Franc Cather maintained a warm relationship and were regular correspondents until Franc’s death, exchanging letters about family matters and about Willa’s writing. Elements of the life of her New-England-born aunt inspired the character Aunt Georgiana in Willa Cather’s story “A Wagner Matinee” (1904), and Franc’s son Grosvenor was the prototype for Claude Wheeler in One of Ours (1922), making Frances the prototype for Claude’s mother, Evangeline Wheeler.

Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or “Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in the Virginia to William Lee Boak and Rachel Seibert Boak, Virginia was educated in Baltimore, MD, and was a schoolteacher until her marriage to Charles Fectigue Cather in 1872. Her husband’s family were primarily Union supporters during the Civil War while her family supported the Confederacy (three brothers served in the Confederate Army although their mother opposed slavery). After her marriage she tried to help unite the divided family. Four of her children, Willa, Roscoe, Charles Douglas, and Jessica Virginia, were born in Virginia, while three, James Donald, Elsie Margaret, and John Esten, were born in Nebraska after the family moved there in 1883. Despite occasional differences, Cather remained in affectionate contact with her mother, who remained in Red Cloud, NE, where the family settled in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1928 Virginia Cather suffered a stroke while visiting her children and their families in California. She spent nearly three years in a sanitarium in Pasadena, CA, unable to speak. Willa Cather visited her there several times but was unable to travel quickly enough from Grand Manan to Red Cloud for her funeral and interment after she died in Pasadena in 1931. Virginia Cather was the prototype for Victoria Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932), which Willa Cather completed shortly before her mother’s death.

Wiener, Charles F. (1847-1917). American businessman. Born in Bohemia, Wiener came to the U.S. with his family in 1860; he enlisted in the Navy during the Civil War, then joined his family in Chicago, IL. He married Fannie Meyer; they had no children. In 1883 Wiener bought a clothing store in Red Cloud, NE, where they became prominent citizens; for a time during Cather’s childhood they lived across the street from the Charles F. Cather home. Wiener was elected mayor of Red Cloud in 1893, the year his wife died, and county commissioner in 1896. In 1897 he sold his store and moved to New York, living with an elder brother and going into the real estate business with a nephew; he remarried in 1906. Cather regarded Wiener as a friend from her youth until his death, visiting him while they both lived in New York; she portrayed him and Fanny Wiener as the Rosens in “Old Mrs. Harris.”

Cather, George P. (1847-1938). Farmer; Cather’s uncle. Born in Back Creek Valley, VA, George was the eldest child of William and Emily Caroline Smith Cather. He married Frances (Franc) Smith in 1873, and they moved west to become two of the early settlers of northwestern Webster County, NE, followed by many family members and neighbors from Back Creek, including George’s parents, his sisters, and his brother Charles and family. After early struggles, George and Franc Cather prospered, rearing five children: Carrie, Blanche, Grosvenor P., and twins Oscar and Frank. George was a partial prototype for Nat Wheeler in Cather’s One of Ours (1922), and his son Grosvenor was the main prototype for Claude Wheeler, the novel’s protagonist.

Hambourg, Isabelle McClung (1877-1938). Cather’s longtime friend. Cather met Isabelle McClung, the daughter of a socially prominent, Pittsburgh (PA) family, in 1899 in the dressing room of actress Lizzie Hudson Collier. McClung seems to have been the first woman to reciprocate Cather’s romantic affections. In 1901, McClung invited Cather to live in her family’s large home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. She and Cather traveled together to Europe in 1902, and McClung accompanied Cather on a visit home to Nebraska in 1905. After Cather moved to New York City in 1906, she frequently visited McClung in Pittsburgh, finding the familiar house a congenial place to write, and McClung visited New York City, staying with Cather and Edith Lewis. Cather and McClung also rented a vacation cabin in Cherry Valley, NY, in 1911, and traveled together to Virginia in 1913. In late 1915, shortly after the death of her father, Judge Samuel McClung, Isabelle announced her intention to marry violinist Jan Hambourg. Cather reacted negatively to the marriage (which took place in 1916) but eventually reconciled herself to it, enjoying long visits with the Hambourgs in Toronto, Ontario, in 1921 and France in 1923 and 1935. Cather and Edith Lewis also spent time with the Hambourgs in Paris is 1930 and 1935. The latter trip occurred after Isabelle sought treatment in the U.S. for the kidney disease that killed her several years later in Italy. Her death came only four months after Cather’s brother Douglass died, leaving her feeling bereft. “No other living person cared as much about my work, through thirty-eight years,” she wrote her brother Roscoe (#2137). After Isabelle’s death, Jan sent to Cather the six hundred letters from Cather to Isabelle in his possession, and Cather destroyed them, although a few letters from Isabelle and Cather postcards to Isabelle are extant.

Gore, Lillian Sparrendahl (1866-1913). Wife of James Howard Gore. Born and raised in Sweden, Lillian married James Howard Gore in 1889, coming to live with him in Washington, DC, where he was a professor at Columbian University. They had one daughter, Sidney, who died at age fifteen. Cather stayed with the Gores for a time in 1901, and admired her cousin’s wife; however, Cather’s claims about Lillian’s early life have not been verified.

Seymour, Elizabeth (c. 1859-1934) (“Bess,” “Bessie”). Cather’s cousin. Bess Seymour was born in Virginia to Sarah Boak (the elder sister of Willa Cather’s mother) and her first husband, Joseph D. Seymour. In 1883, Bess moved with Willa Cather’s family to Webster County, NE. Seymour lived in the Cather family home from 1883 to 1904, when she moved to the Webster County farm of her half brother, Will Andrews. Cather used her cousin’s name as a byline for the story “The Burglar’s Christmas” (1906), and it has been suggested that she served as a model for Aunt Tillie in The Song of the Lark (1915). Cather frequently mentions in letters to other family members that she received long letters from Seymour full of family news, and she urged her sister Elsie Cather to care for Seymour during her final illness and sent money to pay medical expenses.

Cather, Grosvenor Perry (1883-1918) (“G.P.”). Cather’s cousin. G.P. Cather was born in Catherton, NE, the oldest son of Frances and George Cather. He attended Grand Island Baptist College and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln but was a poor student and did not earn a degree. He married his childhood friend Myrtle Bartlett in 1910. Restless and unsuccessful both before and after his marriage, he joined the Nebraska National Guard in 1914 and served under General John J. Pershing on the Mexican border in 1916. He became a member of the Allied Expeditionary Force in 1917 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He died in action in Cantigny, France, on May 28 and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre. Willa Cather read his letters home to his mother about his experiences in the army, and she modeled Claude Wheeler, the protagonist of One of Ours (1922), on G.P. His body was first buried in a military cemetery in France, where Cather visited his grave in 1920. In 1921, a large military funeral marked the reinterment of his remains in Bladen, NE.

Cather, Frank William (1886-1927). Farmer; Willa Cather’s cousin. Born in Webster County, NE, Frank Cather and his twin brother, Oscar, were the youngest children of George P. Cather and Frances Smith Cather. Frank grew up on the family farm, then attended Grand Island Baptist College in Grand Island, NE, and the Boston Conservatory of Music. Returning to Nebraska, in 1907 he homesteaded with his brother Oscar in McPherson County, then after 1910 returned to Webster County. After 1920 he operated a dairy farm near Kansas City, MO. He married and the couple had one daughter.

Cather, Oscar Edward (1886-1973). Farmer and minister; Willa Cather’s cousin. Born in Webster County, NE, Oscar Cather and his twin brother, Frank, were the youngest children of George P. Cather and Frances Smith Cather. He grew up on the family farm, then attended Grand Island Baptist College in Grand Island, NE. Oscar Cather married Myra Lombard in 1909, and they had one son, George Perry Cather. Oscar and his brother Frank homesteaded in McPherson County in western Nebraska. Oscar remained on a ranch in McPherson County into the 1930s, where he and his second wife, Hazel Johnson Cather, had five children. He became a minister, then retired to California. He was buried in Adams County, CO, where his youngest son, Giles Perry Cather, lived.

Lindgren, Carrie H. Cather (1876-1960). American teacher; Willa Cather’s cousin. Born in Webster County, NE, eldest child of George P. Cather and Frances Smith Cather, Carrie Cather grew up on the family farm. She attended Grand Island Baptist College in Grand Island, NE, and taught in local schools. In 1900 she married a neighbor, Oscar Lindgren, and they had five children. In 1907 they moved to nearby Bladen, NE, where Oscar dealt in real estate before becoming postmaster in 1921; Carrie served as his assistant. Carrie’s father stayed with the Lindgrens during the summers after the death of his wife in 1922.

Ray, Blanche Chandler Cather (1878-1964). American teacher; Willa Cather’s cousin. Born in Webster County, NE, second child of George P. Cather and Frances Smith Cather, Blanche Cather grew up on the family farm. She attended Grand Island Baptist College, in Grand Island, NE, and taught in local country schools. She married William Wallace Ray, a lumber dealer, in 1902; they had four children, one who died in early childhood, and George, Margaret, and Frances. After the death of his wife, George P. Cather spent winters with Blanche and her family in Grand Island.