Cather, Elsie Margaret (1890-1964) (“Bobbie”). Cather’s sister. Born in Red Cloud, NE, shortly before Willa Cather graduated from high school, Elsie attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln from 1908 to 1910, before transferring to Smith College, in Northampton, MA, from which she graduated with an A.B. in English and Latin in 1912. She undertook graduate study at the University of Nebraska in 1914 and in 1916 received her A.M. with a major in philosophy and a minor in English. At both the undergraduate and the graduate level at Nebraska, she studied under Louise Pound. She began a career in high school teaching in 1912, when she took a position in Lander, WY, where her brother Roscoe then lived with his family. She also taught in Albuquerque, NM; Corning, IA; Cleveland, OH; and briefly Red Cloud, when illness in the family brought her home. Her longest tenure as a teacher was at Lincoln (NE) High School, where she began teaching in 1920, with Olivia Pound and Mariel Gere as colleagues. Willa Cather's expectation that Elsie be responsible for aging family and friends and for legal affairs after their parents' deaths sometimes brought the sisters into conflict. Elsie Cather retired from Lincoln High School in 1942. She died in Lincoln.

Lewis, Edith Labaree (1881-1972). Magazine editor, advertising copywriter, and Cather's domestic partner. Born in Lincoln, NE, to Henry Euclid Lewis and Lillie Gould Lewis, Edith Lewis attended the preparatory school associated with the University of Nebraska, earning college credits from the University before transferring to Smith College in Northampton, MA, in 1899. She received an A.B. in English from Smith in 1902 and returned home to teach elementary school. She met Willa Cather in the summer of 1903 at the home of Sarah Harris, publisher of the Lincoln Courier. Moving to New York City soon afterward, Lewis settled into a studio on Washington Square and found work at the Century Publishing Company. Cather was her guest when she visited the city from Pittsburgh. In 1906, at Cather's suggestion, Lewis applied for a position as an editorial proofreader at McClure's Magazine, and the two women worked together on the McClure's staff for six years. In 1908, they moved into a shared apartment at 82 Washington Place, and then, in 1912, to Five Bank Street. Lewis left McClure's in 1915 to become managing editor of Every Week Magazine, where she stayed until the magazine folded in 1918. In 1919 she began a long career as an advertising copywriter at the J. Walter Thompson Co. In 1926 Edith Lewis acquired the land on which she and Cather built their cottage on Grand Manan Island. When they lost their apartment on Bank Street to subway construction in 1927, they shared quarters at the Grosvenor Hotel when they were both in New York City. In 1932 they took an apartment at 570 Park Avenue. Throughout their relationship, Lewis was closely involved in Cather's creative process, reading and editing her work in pre-publication forms. Cather's will appointed Lewis as executor of her literary estate and a beneficiary of her literary trust. Lewis authorized E.K. Brown as Cather's first biographer and published her own memoir of Cather, Willa Cather Living (1953). She remained in their Park Avenue apartment after Cather's death and died there after a long period of illness and invalidism. She is buried at Cather's side in Jaffrey, NH.

Sherwood, Carrie Miner (1869-1971). Sherwood, Carrie Belle Miner (1869-1972) Civic leader; Cather's friend. Born in Waukon, IA, to James L. Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Carrie Miner was the eldest of their children. The family moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where the Miner Brothers store became the largest in town. Cather remembered meeting Carrie there. In 1884, Carrie, her mother, and siblings were confirmed in the Catholic church. In 1888, she studied music at St. Mary’s Academy at Notre Dame, IN. She married bank clerk Walter Sherwood in late 1889; they had two sons. The Sherwoods travelled often in the West, and visited Europe in 1930. They built a new house at 3rd and Seward streets in Red Cloud in 1908; Cather sometimes sent materials for Carrie to keep in its spacious attics. Carrie Miner Sherwood led local Red Cross work during the two World Wars, served on the Red Cloud school board and park commission, and was active in the League of Women Voters and in the Ladies Guild of Grace Episcopal Church. Cather corresponded with Carrie Miner Sherwood throughout her life and dedicated My Ántonia to Carrie, model for Frances Harling in the novel, and her sister Irene. Carrie was one of Mildred Bennett’s chief sources for The World of Willa Cather (1951), and was instrumental in setting up what is now the Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud.

Creighton, Mary S. Miner (1873-1968). Clubwoman; Cather’s friend from childhood. Born in Iowa, Mary Miner was the second daughter of James and Julia Miner, neighbors of the Cather family in Red Cloud, NE. Willa Cather later recalled that when she first moved into town with her family and enrolled in school in 1885, “Margie Miner was so jolly I wanted awfully to know her.” They became lifelong friends and correspondents, and Mary’s sisters Irene and Carrie were equally close to Cather. Mary Miner wed local physician E. A. Creighton in 1900 and lived the rest of her life in Red Cloud. She was the prototype for Julia Harling in My Ántonia (1918).

Weisz, Irene Miner (1881-1971). Musician; Cather’s lifelong friend. Born in Red Cloud, NE, the youngest child of James L. Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Irene Miner was educated in Red Cloud, graduating in 1898 and played with the Cather children as part of the play town of Sandy Point and in amateur theatricals. She studied piano with local teachers, such as Mrs. P.E.B. Sill, then went to the Chicago College of Music from 1899 to 1901. She met clerk Charles Weisz, later president of the A.F. Shaw insurance company, there; they married in late 1915, settling in Chicago. She visited Red Cloud frequently, but also travelled in the American West and then to Europe in 1921 and around the world in 1934. Cather corresponded with Irene Miner Weisz for many years and sometimes stayed with her in Chicago when travelling to and from the West. My Ántonia is dedicated to Irene, model for Nina Harling in the novel, and to her sister Carrie Miner Sherwood.

Miner, Julia Erickson (1844-1917). Cather's Norwegian-American friend. Born in Norway, where her father was a musician and a leather-worker, Julia came with her family to the U.S. in 1853. They settled in Iowa, where she met and married James L. Miner in 1868. The family came to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878, where J. L. Miner became the leading merchant of the town. They had eight children, of whom five survived to adulthood; their four daughters, Carrie, Mary, Margaret, and Irene, were all good friends of Cather. Julia Miner was widowed in 1905. Cather portrayed her as the strong, active, musical Mrs. Harling in My Ántonia (1918), the only time, she said, that she drew a “portrait of an actual person.”

Miner, Charles Hugh (1871-1954) (“Hugh,” “Hughie”). Red Cloud businessman and postmaster. Born in Iowa, eldest and only surviving son of James L. and Julia Erickson Miner, Charles Hugh Miner was named for his uncle Hugh Miner and came with his family to Red Cloud, NE, in 1878. Hugh was educated in Red Cloud and at a business college in Notre Dame, IN. He married Cather’s cousin Alfretta “Retta” Ayre in 1896, and they had four children, Jennie, Margaret, James, and Charles Hugh. In 1917 Hugh sold the Miner Bros. store and concentrated on farming and ranching. In 1936 he was appointed postmaster of Red Cloud. Cather portrayed the Miner family in My Ántonia (1918) as the Harlings, whose only son is Charley Harling.

Miner, James L. (1847-1905) (“J.L.”). Red Cloud merchant. Born in Ohio, James Miner came with his family to Iowa, where he married Julia Erickson in 1868. They had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood, Carrie, Mary, Margaret, Irene, and Hugh, who were Cather’s childhood friends in Red Cloud, NE, where the family moved in 1878. James and his brother Hugh Miner started the Miner Bros. store, which became one of the largest in the region. They also bought a large cattle ranch on the Republican River west of Red Cloud and started the People’s Bank of Red Cloud in 1893, when other town banks had failed. Miner was a Catholic and a Democrat in a predominantly Protestant and Republican area; Cather drew on this in her portrayal of R.E. Dillon in “Two Friends” (1932). Miner also appears as Christian Harling in My Ántonia (1918), the distant father of the Harling children.

Gund, Margaret Miner (1875-1936). Cather’s childhood friend; iris breeder. Born in Iowa, the third surviving daughter of James L. and Julia Erickson Miner, Margaret grew up in Red Cloud, NE, where she was one of Cather’s close friends. She played the role of Beauty in the children’s play Beauty and the Beast in 1888, while Cather played the merchant, her father; she also sang and played the violin in various local musical performances. In 1896 she met bank cashier Frederick Gund at a dance in Blue Hill, NE; they were married in December 1900. The couple lived in Blue Hill, where their four children were born and she cultivated iris plants. When the bank closed in 1932, the couple—their children grown—moved to Crawford, NE. Margaret Miner Gund died in Chicago, IL, and is buried in Lincoln, NE. Cather portrayed her as Sally Harling, the tomboy, in My Ántonia (1918).

Weisz, Irene Miner (1881-1971). Musician; Cather’s lifelong friend. Born in Red Cloud, NE, the youngest child of James L. Miner and Julia Erickson Miner, Irene Miner was educated in Red Cloud, graduating in 1898 and played with the Cather children as part of the play town of Sandy Point and in amateur theatricals. She studied piano with local teachers, such as Mrs. P.E.B. Sill, then went to the Chicago College of Music from 1899 to 1901. She met clerk Charles Weisz, later president of the A.F. Shaw insurance company, there; they married in late 1915, settling in Chicago. She visited Red Cloud frequently, but also travelled in the American West and then to Europe in 1921 and around the world in 1934. Cather corresponded with Irene Miner Weisz for many years and sometimes stayed with her in Chicago when travelling to and from the West. My Ántonia is dedicated to Irene, model for Nina Harling in the novel, and to her sister Carrie Miner Sherwood.