Newsletter of the
Katherine Anne Porter
Society


Volume 5, Number 1; May 1998

Inside...

KAP's Coffin

Remembering KAP

Porter Activities

Porter House

In Memoriam

Other short articles


Other Newsletters

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4.1
Volume 4.2
Volume 5.1
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
Volume 9
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 12

Return to home page

Clark Dobson and Kathleen Feeley Remember Katherine Anne Porter (Continued)

Editor's Note: The following remarks were made at the business meeting of the Katherine Anne Porter Society at the American Literature Association Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 23, 1997. The reminiscences of Dr. Clark Dobson, a Dean at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, appeared in the last issue of this newsletter. Those of Sister Kathleen Feeley, former President of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland who is currently the Director of Special Education for the Baltimore City Schools, appear below. This portion of the recollections also includes responses to questions raised at the conclusion of Sister Feeley's remarks.

An excerpt (contact editor for full article):

I met Katherine Anne Porter about the same time that Clark did. I had just finished writing a book on Flannery O'Connor. I had studied Katherine Anne Porter's relationship with Flannery O'Connor. I became president of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in 1971. The year before, I was interning on the campus and saw in the newspaper that Katherine Anne Porter was living at College Park. And I said, "Aha!" . . .

So I called Katherine Anne Porter on the telephone and said I'm Sister Kathleen Feeley, and I'm at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. I would love to come down and meet you. She was so gracious she invited me to come. Sister Maura, who was the head of the English Department at that time and I went down to see Katherine Anne. We were welcomed in her beautiful apartment in College Park. We talked for a while, and it was my goal to get Katherine Anne to come and give some special occasion lecture at Notre Dame. So we invited her first for a religious event, because you know she was raised a Catholic, and we appealed to her Catholic sensibilities which were always there, even though she was not a practicing Catholic.


© 1999 Katherine Anne Porter Society