Katherine "Kay" Rita O'Brien (Allen)

1940 US Federal Census Ward 10, New Orleans, New Orleans City, Orleans, Louisiana

In 1940, Alice Allen, a 71 year old widow, lived in a house she rented at 2301 St. Charles Ave. with son John, 44, a general clerk for a railroad; daughter Katherine O'Brien, 29, a typist; son-in-law Howard O'Brien, 27, a substituted clerk at the US post office; granddaughter Alice O'Brien, 3/12; grandson Jack Alam?, 12; and lodger, Ethel Gillman, a 28 year old secretary. All were born in Louisiana. All lived in the same place in 1935 except John and Katherine, who then lived in Los Angeles, California.[1]

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https://64parishes.org/entry/anne-rice

Early Life and Career

The second of four daughters, Rice was born in New Orleans on October 4, 1941. Originally named Howard Allen O’Brien after her Irish parents, Katherine Allen O’Brien and Howard O’Brien, she tried out a variety of female names before settling on Anne. Believing that a good mother raised an intellectually superior child, Katherine O’Brien encouraged her children’s creativity while holding them accountable to their Catholic faith. This tension between permissiveness and restraint is key to Rice’s gothic and erotic novels. The emotional turmoil Rice experienced as the child of an alcoholic mother also kindled what one biographer described as “the need for love that pervaded her life [and] art.” Rice’s father provided more stability. Writing stories and poems for his children, he also encouraged them to read and took them on walks through New Orleans.

References

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89937759/katherine-r-o'brien
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-15444

Deaths

O'BRIEN – On Monday morning, July 23, 1956, at 8:15 o'clock, KATHERINE R. ALLEN, wife of Howard J. O'Brien; mother of Alice A., Howard A., Tamara A., and Karen A. O'Brien; sister of John (Mickey) Allen and Mrs. George Davian of Los Angeles, Calif.

The funeral will be held from the P. J. McMahon and Sons funeral home, 4800 Canal street, near cemeteries, at 10:30 o'clock Wednesday morning, July 25, 1956, followed by requiem mass at Our Mother of Perpetual Help chapel.

Interment in St. Joseph No. 2 cemetery. – New Orleans States (New Orleans, LA), Tue 24 Jul 1956, page 4

NOTE: Her full date of birth is shown here, from "Louisiana, Orleans Parish Vital Records, 1900-1964."* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Dec 17 2021, 0:18:04 UTC