Kate L. Turabian (1893–1987)

"She was born Laura Kate Larimore on Chicago’s south side, where she was also raised, graduating from Hyde Park High School. A serious illness prevented Kate from attending college. Instead she took a job as a typist at an advertising agency, where she worked alongside a young Sherwood Anderson. She met her husband, Stephen Turabian, in 1919, and began working at the University as a departmental secretary a few years later. In 1930 she became the University’s dissertation secretary, a newly created position in which every accepted doctoral thesis had to cross her desk. It was there that she wrote a small pamphlet describing the correct style for writing college dissertations."

"A devout Episcopalian, an accomplished cook, an enthusiastic and adventurous traveler, and a voracious reader whose erudition earned the respect of scholars of all ranks despite her lack of the customary academic credentials."