Person:Katherine Blank (1)

" Katarina Blank

Across the street from the first modest shop of the Vonnegut Hardware Company on East Washington Street in the 1850s was a small German restaurant. One of the waitresses in this establishment was an attractive girl named Katarina Blank. She was one of seven children of a German immigrant family of peasants who came from Urloffen in Baden and settled on a farm in Wayne Township, Marion County, just west of Indianapolis. They were struggling to get their farm to be productive after felling the forest trees and draining the land. With so many children to feed and clothe, all had to work for their living after a few years of primary instruction in the common school. Katarina Blank went to work as a waitress in this little cafe, and soon met Clemens Vonnegut, who fell in love with her. They were married in 1852. He was twenty-eight and she, twenty-four.

Katarina was, like Clemens, small in stature and dark complected. Both spoke German in their home, but had considerable fluency in French as well. The training of their children was in the tradition and culture of nineteenth-century Germany. Katarina, although of humble origin and little formal education, became a highly respected and extremely dignified matriarch, much beloved by her children and grandchildren. " http://www.octc.kctcs.edu/crunyon/Eng262/05-Contemporary/Vonn/katarina_blank.htm

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Katherine Blank Vonnegut's tombstone and memorial page, in Find A Grave.

   Note: her tombstone reads "Katharina" Vonnegut.