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Matee seems to have been Kate's nickname.
On December 30, 1903,
the Becker sisters went to an afternoon matinee at Chicago's
newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois Theater. Five hours
later their husbands, the Kennedy half brothers, searched
morgues for their bodies.
Thirty-eight-year-old Kate
"Katie" H. Becker (b.1865) had married to Andrew
Collin Kennedy (1866-1947). They lived in
Freeport with their two children — thirteen-year-old
Raymond (1890-1969) and two-year-old Jean (1901-1997).
Thirty-three-year-old Margaret "Maggie" B.
Becker (b.1870) had married to Andrew's half brother, David
Edwin Kennedy (1875-1956).* They lived at 111
S. Howard Street† on Chicago's west side in the
Austin community. They did not have children.
They were the daughters of
Christian Becker (1826-1901) and Elizabeth Henry
Becker (1832-1913) of Freeport, in Stephenson County
in the northwest corner of Illinois, a small town of
around 15,000 people then, about two hours from
Chicago.‡
David and Andrew Kennedy
searched the morgues and hospitals together for two
days. Katie's body was found at Jordan's
Undertaking.
The double funeral was held on
Saturday after the fire. Maggie and
Katie were buried side by side at the Freeport City
Cemetery in Freeport, Illinois.
In the years after the fire
Kate's husband, Andrew,
married Frances Palmer after the fire. Maggie's
husband, David, became an officer in the American
Radiator Company of Chicago and married Birdie Irene Gordon.
They had a daughter.
tr>
Discrepancies and addendum
Iroquois victim lists omitted Maggie and Kate's names but four days after the fire the Inter Ocean
ran the story that appears above.
Two other Iroquois Theater victims,
Agnes and Frances Kennedy, were unrelated
to the Kennedys of Freeport.
* Kate and Maggie's husbands had a common father, John
Chapman Kennedy (1835-1899). David's mother
was Sarah C Driskell (1846-1914) and
Andrew's was Mary Ann Davis (1841-1870).
changed the house number at 111 S. Howard to 536 S.
Howard but the street seems to have vanished.
The Howard street of 1903 in Austin ran north and
south but the Howard street of today runs east and
west in Evanston.
‡ Find-A-Grave connects Kate and Maggie to the wrong
parents, Phillipp and Maria Pheil Becker. U.S.
Census for 1870 and 1880 , and inumerous other
references, report their parents as Christian and
Elizabeth. Both families have burial plots in
the southeast section of the Freeport City Cemetery.
Christian, Elizabeth, Kate and Maggie are in row 18
at the Freeport City Cemetery on Lincoln St. in
Freeport. Phillipp, Maria and their
children are in row 25 at the St. Joseph Catholic
Cemetery on South St. in Freeport.
Lena
Illinois Cooper and Steinmetz
Dixon brother and sister
escaped Iroquois Theater fire
Kennedy sisters Iroquois
Theater victims
Other discussions you may find interesting
Story 1030
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
