Katherine 'Kay' Murphy Halle (October 13, 1903 – August 7, 1997) was an American journalist, broadcaster and socialite. She was born in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, the daughter of Blanche (née Murphy) and Samuel Horatio Halle. Her father co-founded the Halle Brothers department store with his brother,

Salmon Portland Chase Halle Salmon Portland Chase Halle (August 6, 1866 – September 13, 1949) was an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded the Halle Brothers department store. Biography Halle was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohi ...

. Her mother was an Irish

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and her father

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. She attended Smith College and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Halle was a department store heiress,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

intelligence operative with the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

, and intimate confidant and/or mistress of many luminaries of the 20th century, including

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

, Randolph Churchill,

W. Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986), better known as Averell Harriman, was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce un ...

, Joseph P. Kennedy, Walter Lippmann, and

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

. She compiled and edited ''Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill's Wit'' in 1966.

References

American women journalists American broadcasters Radio personalities from Cleveland People of the Office of Strategic Services 1903 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American people of Irish descent American people of Jewish descent {{US-radio-bio-stub