Mellen, Mary Virginia Auld (1906-1982) (“Virginia,” “M.V.”). Cather's niece. Born in Red Cloud, NE, to Jessica Cather Auld and James William Auld, Mary Virginia graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1924 and then spent a year at Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA, to qualify for admission to Smith College in Northampton, MA. In 1929 she received an A.B. in psychology from Smith and then moved to New York City, where she found work at Lord & Taylor before telling her aunt of her arrival. In 1930, probably with Willa Cather's help, she secured a position in the Circulation Department of the New York Public Library. In 1931, she entered the library's internal training school and in 1932 was assigned to the Tremont branch library in the Bronx. After Mary Virginia’s parents divorced in 1933 Cather took a quasi-parental role. She paid for vacations and when, in 1935, Mary Virginia married Richard (Dick) Mellen, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and roommate of her brother William Thomas Auld at Amherst College, she supervised wedding arrangements. After Dick was commissioned as a doctor in the Air Force, Mary Virginia—much to Cather’s regret—accompanied him to Chattanooga, TN, where he was assigned. In Cather's will, Mary Virginia was designated a beneficiary of the literary estate.

Brockway, Virginia Cather (1912-1984) (“West Virginia”). Cather's niece. Born in Lander, WY, to Roscoe Cather and Meta Schaper Cather, Virginia graduated from Natrona County High School in Casper, WY, in 1929. She received an A.B. in English from Smith College in Northampton, MA, in 1933, the same year Willa Cather received an honorary doctorate there. In 1934, she enrolled in the University of Chicago School of Social Services and was, for a time, a social worker. She married John Hadley Brockway, a Navy officer, in 1936. They moved frequently until his retirement from the Navy. She had one child, son George. In letters, Willa Cather sometimes calls her "West Virginia" to distinguish her from her cousin Mary Virginia Auld because Virginia Cather's birthplace in Wyoming was farther west than Mary Virginia's in Nebraska.

Thorley, Charles (1857-1923). New York florist. Charles Thorley opened his first flower shop in Manhattan in 1871. After several moves, he established his House of Flowers in a grand townhouse, its exterior decorated with plants, at 46th Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown. The fact of Thorley’s death evidently escaped Cather’s notice for a decade, although she eventually realized that the shop bearing his name was no longer conducted under his supervision.

Rumbold, Hugo Cecil Levinge (1884-1932) (“Captain Rumbold”). British soldier and theatrical designer. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, son of a British diplomat, Hugo Rumbold was educated at Eton College, then entered the British Army in 1901, serving in South Africa in the second Boer war. He began his career in costume and set design before re-entering service during World War I, during which he was wounded and promoted to captain. Resuming his career, Rumbold worked with many distinguished managers and actors, and was part of a social set including Noel Coward and the Sitwell family; he was known as a wit, a dandy, and an occasional cross-dresser. In the late 1920s he became interested in film and went to California, where he met Zoë Akins, who was a Hollywood screenwriter; they collaborated on a play. In March 1932 Rumbold and Akins were married; he died eight months later.