Background
Katharine S. White was born on September 17, 1892, in Winchester, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of Charles Spencer and Elizabeth Blake Sergeant. Her father was a vice president of West End Railway Co., Boston. She had two older sisters, Elizabeth and Rosamund. Katharine's mother was from a prominent family that arrived in Massachusetts in 1636 and became lawyers, governors, and generals in the 19th century. Katharine was six years old when her mother died and her father's sister Caroline (Aunt Crully) moved into their spacious Georgian house in Brookline.