logo
livingroom

decorative bar

biographies


corner Last update of this page: August 21st 2002 corner
Katharine Lee Bates
(August 12, 1859 - March 28, 1929) U.S.A.

Katharine Lee Bates

Poet, author, Wellesley College professor

separator

Katharine Lee BatesBates was educated at Wellesley College where she subsequently taught until her retirement in 1925, by which time she was chair of the English Department. While on the staff at Wellesley she met Katharine Coman , who was the Dean of Wellesley College, for 25 years. The two women enjoyed a romantic friendship of an intense nature, and Bates lived with her lover. When Coman was diagnosized as suffering from cancer, Bates nursed her until the former's death in 1915.

Bates wrote the famous poem, sung in the song "America the Beautiful"

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America!
America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

separator

Click on the letter B to go back to the list of names

corner © Matt & Andrej Koymasky, 1997 - 2008 corner