MS-146 Katharine Kennedy Brown Papers
Biographical Sketch

The Kennedys figured prominently in Dayton Society from the late 19th century well into the 20th century. They numbered the Winters, Pattersons, Wrights, and Barneys among their friends. As a prominent and wealthy family, the Kennedys traveled extensively in Europe and spent their summers in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Katharine initially was educated by German and French governesses at home, then attended Dayton Public Schools and Dana Hall at Wellesley.

Katharine was very close to her brother, Grafton Sherwood "Duke" Kennedy, who was born on June 27, 1893. He attended Yale University and MIT, then became an Army officer, serving from 1917-1945. He married Katherine Lucille Glidden (b. 1891) of Brooklyn, New York on December 1, 1918. They had three children, Katharine (Kay) Kennedy Barney (b. 1919), Frances Lucille (Lou) Kennedy Sharp (later Albert) (b. 1922), and Grafton Sherwood Jr. (Terry), (b. 1926). After Duke's retirement the family lived on a farm in Harford County, Maryland, and a summer home in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Katharine married Kleon Thaw Brown on April 20, 1921. Kleon was manager of ST&GA Gebhart Company of Cleveland from 1914-1919. In 1920 he became an executive in the sales department of NCR Corporation. Tragically, Katharine's marital happiness was short-lived: the couple's only child died in infancy, then was followed by Kleon, who died suddenly on May 20, 1925. Katharine never remarried.

Katharine's political career began in 1920, immediately after women won political suffrage, when women were initially denied a place on the Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee. She decided that she was tired of being "given things" by men and determined to "take what was legally ours."

Katharine eventually became a member of the committee, but did not stop there. She helped build Montgomery County's Women's Ward and Precinct Organization in 1920 and formed the first Women's Republican Club in the county as an added support to the county organization. She became a member of the Republican State Committee of Ohio in 1928, representing the 3rd Congressional District, a position to which she was elected every two years for forty years. Katharine was the Republican National Committee woman for Ohio from 1932-68. She eventually became a member of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of Republican Women's Clubs and served as a member of its Executive Committee. In 1942, she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Republican National Committee and served in that capacity until 1952. She also became a member of the Executive Committees of the State and County Republican Committees. She was a founder of the Ohio Federation of Republican Women's Organizations and was its president from 1940-1964. She was Vice-Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1944-52. Katharine also was a member of the Advisory Council of the Women's National Republican Club of New York and a member of the League of Republican Women and the Capitol Hill Republican Club in Washington, D.C.

Katharine served as a Delegate-at-Large to eight Republican National Conventions (1932, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968) and as an Alternate-at-Large from Ohio in 1928. She was a member of the Arrangements Committee for the Republican National Conventions of 1940 and 1944.

Brown was literally adviser and confidante to numerous presidents, congressmen, and governors, including John Bricker, Robert Taft, James Rhodes and Richard Nixon. In 1944 Senator John W. Bricker chose her as the only woman member of his National Strategy Committee in his bid for the presidency; in 1948 and 1952, Senator Robert A. Taft named her the only woman member of his National Strategy Committee in his bid for the presidential nomination.

Katharine wrote or was co-author of several pamphlets on politics, including: "What You Want to Know About the Great Game of Politics," based on Frank R. Kent's book, "Ward, Township Organization and Polling"; "The Rudiments of Political Organization"; and an evaluation of the 1964 Presidential Campaign, "The Need to Know". She organized the Junior League of Dayton and from 1926 to 1929 was the Vice-President and Regional Director of the Association of Junior Leagues of America. She was a director of the Dayton Art Institute from 1930-47, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Wilberforce University.

Since Katharine's mother and grandmother organized the Jonathan Dayton Chapter of the DAR, Katharine was a member at an early age and served as a page and delegate to their National Congresses. Katharine also was a member of the Colonial Dames of America and Chairwoman of the Dayton Circle.

Katharine's favorite hobby was the theater: she was one of the founders of the Comedy Club of Dayton, which presented one-act plays from 1916-1925.

Katharine died on November 10, 1986 at Kettering Convalescent Center. Katharine, her parents, maternal grandparents and great-grandparents are buried at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton. The family's first residence, 131 West Third Street, is the current home of the Dayton Bicycle Club. Her beloved Duncarrick still stands at 1000 Keowee Street.