| Creator: | Butts, Kathleen McKee, 1900-1977 |
| Title: | Kathleen McKee Butts papers |
| Collection No.: | C601 |
| Dates: | 1904-1977 |
| Quantity: |
Quantity: .6 cubic feet Quantity: 2 boxes |
| Abstract: | Kathleen McKee Butts attended IU Bloomington from 1918-1921, though she did not complete her degree. The bulk of materials included are her writings, which consist of radio scripts, stories, and editorials published in the Plainfield Messenger circa 1934. Personal materials consist mainly of items retained by Butt's father, Dr. Joseph Fennell McKee, and are comprised of correspondence, legal documents, newspaper clippings, and pocket-sized notebooks. Much of the information in these records pertains to Dr. McKee, his wife Irene Sullivan McKee and her father John E. Sullivan, and the subsequent legal proceedings and personal issues involving their divorce and custody of their child Kathleen. |
| Language: | Materials are in English |
| Repository: | Indiana University Archives Herman B Wells Library E460 1320 East Tenth Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7000 Business Number: 812-855-1127 archives@iu.edu URL: https://libraries.indiana.edu/university-archives |
Kathleen McKee Butts was born June 7th, 1900. She attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, where she was a staff member for the school's Daily Echo newspaper. After graduating in 1918 she enrolled at Indiana University in Bloomington, majoring in English and minoring in Journalism. Though she did not complete her degree, she worked as a reporter for the Indiana Daily Student until 1921.
On May 24, 1922 McKee married Albert W. Butts in Marian County, Indiana. After that point she worked for several advertising agencies and publishers in Indiana and Washington, D.C., and wrote editorials for Plainfield, Indiana's Plainfield Messenger in 1934. She wrote a number of stories and radio scripts, some of which were submitted for publication but not picked up. Kathleen wrote under several pseudonyms, including Kay McKee, K. Wesley Butts, and McKee Butts.
The available story of Kathleen's life is limited, and told mostly through letters, newspaper clippings, and notes kept by her father between 1902 and 1944. Her parents, Dr. Joseph Fennell McKee and Irene Sullivan McKee, divorced messily in 1904. J. F. McKee fought unsuccessfully for years to gain full custody of Kathleen, ultimately growing estranged from her. During the 1940s Dr. McKee attempted to reconnect with Kathleen, corresponding with a number of individuals and attorneys in attempt to locate his daughter and her husband. A letter was sent to Kathleen with an incomplete address, and was returned unclaimed. It is unclear if she ever reconnected with her father, and she died in July 1977.
Consists of the papers of Kathleen McKee Butts in two series, Writings and Personal Materials. The Writings series (1934-1949) contains many of Kathleen's unpublished works, including 17 radio scripts, 8 stories or story outlines, and several editorials published in the Plainfield Messenger in 1934.
The second series, Personal materials (1904-1944), contains a variety of papers in four file folders, including correspondence, business and legal documents, and three pocket notebooks with dates and notes ade by Dr. Joseph Fennell McKee from 1904-1906. Correspondence is separated into two files. One file contains letters from John E. Sullivan and Irene Sullivan McKee to J.F. McKee, some dated 1902 and some undated, which give details about their relationships before their divorce in May 1904. The second file holds letters sent by J. F. McKee to numerous individuals in the 1940s when he was attempting to locate his daughter and her husband before his death. A third folder contains a number of clippings from Indianapolis newspapers hand-dated 1904-1905 documenting the highly litigious activities of the McKees and Sullivans. Legal documents pertaining to John E. Sullivan's death, Kathleen's child custody case, and the assigning of a guardian ad litem during the last part of her life are also included. The fourth folder contains Butt's résumé and two letters of recommendation from 1934. Seven photographs of unidentified people, farmland, dogs and chickens with no accompanying documentation have been removed.
Collection is organized into two series: Writings and Personal Materials.
Collection is open for research. Advance notice required.
The donor(s) of this collection have transferred their copyrights for the materials to the Trustees of Indiana University through a Deed of Gift. For more information, please contact the Indiana University Archives staff.
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7 unlabeled photographs of people, farmland, dogs and chickens with no accompanying documentation. Contact the Archives Photograph Curator for further information.
Gift of Benita Kaplan, friend and neighbor of Ms. Butts.
[Item], Kathleen McKee Butts papers, Collection C601, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
Accession: 2015/100
Processed by Jeannine Roe.
Completed in 2015 .
Physical Description: (2 folders)