Armstrong, Stuart Polsley (1907-1996). American high school English teacher. Born in Ripley, WV, son of Harry Stuart Armstrong and Eliza Vilette Crow Armstrong, Stuart Armstrong began his career as a high school teacher in Ripley in 1930. In 1935 he married Lucille Carpenter, who was also a teacher. They moved to Charleston, WV, in 1940, where Stuart Armstrong taught English at the newly opened Stonewall Jackson High School for the next thirty years; he also sponsored the school newspaper and the literary magazine, the Yearling. Cather’s response to a letter from Armstrong was published in the first issue of the magazine in May 1941.

Cather, Mary Virginia Boak (1850-1931) (“Virginia” or “Jenny”). Cather’s mother. Born in 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.

Jackson, Thomas J. (1824-1863) (“Stonewall”). Civil War Confederate officer. Born in Clarksburg, VA (now West Virginia), Jackson graduated from the West Point U.S. Military Academy in 1846. He served as a lieutenant in the US-Mexico War from 1846 to 1848. Afterward, Jackson took a job as a professor of artillery tactics and philosophy at the Virginia Military Institute, a position which he held for ten years. In 1857, Jackson married Mary Anna Morrison. The couple had two daughters, both of whom died young. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Jackson joined the Confederate army and served under General Robert E. Lee. Jackson died of pneumonia as a result of a wound he received after being mistakenly fired upon by his own soldiers.

Cather, Charles Fectigue (1848-1928). Cather’s father. Charles Fectigue (possibly Fectique) Cather was born in the Back Creek Valley of Virginia, north of Winchester. His family were sheep raisers who were largely, but not entirely, Union supporters during the Civil War. He married Mary Virginia Seibert Boak, daughter of Confederate supporters, in 1872. In 1883 he and his family followed his parents, William and Caroline Cather, and brother George to Webster County in Nebraska, where various cousins and uncles had also settled. Initially he ran a ranch in the county but soon moved his family into the town of Red Cloud, where he had an insurance and real estate business. Four of his children, Willa, Roscoe, Charles, and Jessica, were born in Virginia, while three, James, Elsie, and John, were born in Nebraska. Cather’s relationship with her father was very warm: she made regular visits to her parents in Red Cloud and especially enjoyed her father’s letters expressing appreciation of her novels. A week after she concluded a visit to her ailing father in Red Cloud, he died of heart disease. He served as the prototype for Hillary Templeton in “Old Mrs. Harris” (1932).