DKH - Kate Herring Highsmith: Collected Writings

Kate M. Herring
Mrs. J. Henry Highsmith

Collected Writings

Au Vieux Logis
November 6, 2020

Kate Herring Highsmith (1880–1966), journalist and club woman, was an indefatigable Raleigh activist on behalf of the health and welfare of all North Carolinians. Writing principally for the state Health Bulletin and Sunday newspapers, she covered subjects from tuberculosis to marijuana, incarceration to maternity and infant care, libraries to art museums. This collection of some 250 of her essays and press releases is presented by her grandson, D. Kern Holoman.

Below you will find amplifications, updates, and suggestions for further reading.

Kate Herring Highsmith (1880-1966)11 new photos added to shared album

Biographical essays

[I wanted the main text of this book to be almost entirely by Kate Herring Highsmith. Here are some lovely published recollections of her.]

Mrs. J. A. Yarbrough, "Interesting Carolina People," Charlotte Sunday Observer, 10 January 1943, p. 33 (section 3, p. 5).

PDF

Mrs. Earl Brian, "Here's a Woman Devoted to N. C.: Mrs. Kate Herring Highsmith," Raleigh Times, 4 January 1960, p. 12.

PDF | Clipping with photograph

For further reading

Cotten, Sallie Southall History of the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs, 1901-1925 (Raleigh, 1925; online at docsouth.unc.edu, HERE).

Foushee, Ola Maie, Katherine Pendleton Arrington, North Carolina's Lady of the Arts: Celebrating the Sixtieth Anniversary of the North Carolina Art Society and the Thirtieth Anniversary of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Charlotte, 1986).

Long, Mary Alves, High Time to Tell It (Durham, 1950; rpt. Barakaldo Books, 2020).

McKimmon, Jane Simpson, When We're Green We Grow (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965; rpt. on demand from UNC Press Enduring Editions).

Rogoff, Leonard, Gertrude Weil: Jewish Progressive in the New South (UNC Press, 2017).

Walker, Harriette Hammer, Busy North Carolina Women (Asheboro, 1931; online at digitial.ncdcr.org, HERE); Mrs. J. Henry Highsmith article, pp. 105-06, HERE. Many of the women mentioned in Collected Writings are treated in this lively compendium.

Articles in NCPedia

Corrections, amplifications, thoughts

p. ii: rear-cover photograph is from September 8, 1956, my 9th birthday

p. 1: "the mail and papers arrived on site."

In fact, federal records list Rufus K. Herring as founding postmaster of Herring NC, from 15 October 1891; though he died in 1898, the post office lasted there until 15 September 1904.

p. 6: "Officially she was Katherine Maude."

Also: my father always called her "Mother," although she was in fact his mother-in-law. He thought it made sense, his own mother having died when he was very young.

p. 27: "The Sir Walter Hotel, ... where the Legislators drank and smoked cigars."

But not legally, as to strong drink. Liquor by the drink did not become legal in North Carolina until 1978.

p. 33: cheese and Town House crackers.

Also Fritos. I remembered recently, while cooking the same thing, that she did an impressive if simple Welsh rarebit, which we of course called Welsh rabbit. No beer, of course.

p. 35: her posse of remarkable women

She herself treats these ladies, and more, in "Unique Personalities," 16 May 1926; I would now add Mrs. S. P. Cooper to my list

pp. 43-44: the family story

But I wonder if this can have taken place that early. My grandfather died before Thanksgiving 1953, and I would only have been 5 in 1952--a little young for that vocabulary. Probably I have commingled memories of holiday meals, and perhaps a soupçon of the Normal Rockwell magazine cover. Now that I think about it, there was some to-do after Grandfather was gone over whether Kern or Louis would carve at those big-family meals, which was the more interesting as my dad loathed chicken and turkey.

p. 68: Chronology 1897

Add, for 1897: "Miss Nettie Barnes, accompanied by the pretty Misses Vara and Katie Herring, all of Glenco High School, Sampson county, spent Saturday and Sunday in town." [Sampson] County Union of Dunn NC, 24 March 1897, p. 3.

p. 77: Chronology 1912

Add, for 16 March 1912: "Notice of Sale! / I will sell at the old homestead of Mrs. Paulina A. Herring, Saturday, March 16, 1912, the following property, to-wit: Corn, Fodder, Cotton seed, and other personal property. Terms of Sale cash or good security. / TROY I. HERRING, Administrator" (Clinton News Dispatch, 7 and 14 March 1912, p. 3).

Further articles by Kate Herring Highsmith:

1936

"Babies In North Carolina," Raleigh News and Observer, 2 May 1936, p. 4; rpt. Sunday Charlotte News, 10 May 1936 , section A, p. 8.

1937

"May Day and Child Health Day in North Carolina," The Clubwoman GFWC, April 1937, p. 10.

au Vieux Logis

The Vieux Logis, or Old Lodge, of our colophon is our house in France. Nobody knows how old the oldest part is, nor even which part of the structure(s) that may be. Picture postcards from the earliest 1900s show the house more or less complete, and some of the improvements are known to date from the 1870s. The caves, or boves, housed livestock when needed.