On February 8, 1950, Kate O'Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was an Irishman named Thomas O'Flaherty and her mother was an American-French woman named Eliza Faris O'Flaherty. She had four other brothers and sisters. Her sisters died as infants and her brothers before they turned 25.
When Kate was five and a half years old, she was sent to Sacred Heart Academy, a catholic boarding school. Two months later, her father died in a train accident, and she left school to live with her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, who were all widows.
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