The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-11
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
Kitty Cheatham

| NSduty Ol ner STdclOuS young girl life, just as she was blooming into lovely young womanhood.
 Kitty Cheatham stands to me for youth, and joy and song. first saw her when student at Vanderbilt She was then the reigning belle of Nashville. Her grace, sprightliness and radiant good humor enthroned her in the heart of the great student body and along with scores of others I worshipped her from afar and Sunday after Sunday went to one of the leading churches to gaze at her loveliness and to hear the wondrous beauty of her voice.
 Kitty Cheatham is an aristocrat, not the imitation variety, but the kind whose heart beats in sympathy with things democratic. Sure of her own social status. safe in the knowledge of her honorable ancestry, she loves the people
 Miss Cheatham's father, Major Rich ard Cheatham, fighting under the Stars and Bars, surrendered Nashville to Gen. Richard Buell.. General Richard Cheat ham was her grandfather, and her great grandfather, Gen. Archer Cheatham, fought under Andrew Jackson On her mothers side, she Is descended from the Washingtons. One of her cousins is Johnson Cheatham, paymaster in the navy, while another is Major Frank Cheatham, of the army.
 During my Vanderbilt days I was often in the hospitable home of the Cheathams Later when living in New York I used to go to see Kitty, who was connected with one of the stock companies. Then for years she passed out of my knowl- edge until met her here during the bi- ennial and got some sad news of how the family had been almost wiped out by 1 death.
 | It may be apocryphal but the story was current that one of the Vanderbilt students, a friend of mine, a dashing young Kentuckian, a famous spendthrift and man of unblushing cheek, had an engagement to take Kitty to the theatre
 
 couldn't borrow the g for the tickets Good old days when s1 got the best seats in the house.)
 Did he leave town? No. Did he lose his nerve? Not a bit of it. Then what did he do? Here's the way 1t was told to me. On the way to the theatre he said: Miss Kitty, have you got s2?' Yes" she replied "why?" "Oh, be- cause you know it takes money to get in and I am broke. Just stake me-" And she did.
 Did this end it? Not at all Now comes the nerve of the man. He had seen the play and knew how it ended Kitty thought she knew, but didn't. So he led her on in her belief and then bet her 8 she was wrong. He won and this Is how he got the name of being Van derbilt's greatest four-flusher. I dare say this will be news to Kitty or if true that she has forgotten it, but | when I shook hands with her at the Tut wiler it was the first thing that popped into my mind. Now she is famous, and so is he, for he has made a, great repu- tation as politician. With such a nerve, he was scheduled to get any office he coveted. Another thing remember. When Kitty went off to sing in opera some critic in the east dared to criticize her lovely form. When the paper containing the criticism reached Nashville. the entire student body of Vanderbilt wanted to him. To them it was sacrilege. Since these days she has toured tho world. and played to Kings and Queens and been on intimate terms with prince and princess, but with all the admiration showered upon her I'm sure none has been more genuine or unselfish than was l the love given her by the boys at Van | derbilt. know, for was one of them, and what I felt every mothers son of | them felt.
 | Isn't it strange how a bit of verse, a | flower, an odor. a face will awaken mem | ories and days of the past will be lived over again? The sight of Kitty Cheat ham brought back to me as in a flash a joyous chapter out of my life.
 As I sat beside her I wasn't thinking of her as the famous world celebrity. l was just holding her in mind and mem ory as athe happy hearted southern girl
 who was the joy of Nashville. | Into her life has been crowded much pleasure and great sorrow. I was glad to find that the dominant note in her talk was the joy of at last finding her self and that her work as the interpreter of childhood was filling her mother heart with content and love.
 l The American public does not realize fully what 1t owes Kitty Cheatham who Is adapter, translator, collector and in l terpreter-all in one. She has empha- sized the eternal spirit of childhood in
 with her exquisite gift of interpretation, l their compositions for or about children;
 or those written during their own child hood.
 e3aIEzxMl19astW
 P. s.-soWetime later I'm going to write