Katherine Jones Bellamann

Major Works

• My Husband’s Friends (1931)
• Parris Mitchell of Kings Row by Henry and Katherine Bellamann (1948)
• The Hayvens of Demaret (1951)
• Two Sides of a Poem (1956)
• A Poet Passed this Way (1958)

Biography of Katherine Jones Bellamann

By Elizabeth Smitherman (SHS)

Katherine Jones Bellamann was born in Carthage, Mississippi, in October of 1877. She married Henry Bellamann and together they lived in Columbia, South Carolina, Philadelphia, and New York City. In New York, Katherine Bellamann taught voice. After her husband died in 1944, she moved back to Jackson, Mississippi, and she lived there until her death on November 8, 1956. She completed Parris Mitchell of Kings Row after her husband’s death.

Bellamann also wrote many poems after her husband’s death. After Henry died, she also started the Henry Bellamann Foundation, which among other things gives out literary awards.

In addition, she wrote many articles for the Jackson Daily Clarion Ledger. These articles were mainly about poems or about events of interest to the public that were happening in the Mississippi Poetry Society.

In 1955, Bellamann was president of the Mississippi Poetry Society. She was also president of the Magnolia Branch of National League of American Pen Women in Mississippi. Some of her poems are in Lyrics and Different, two works printed by the Mississippi Poetry Society. Two Sides of a Poem received an award in New Poetry Series by Alan Swallow.

On April 7, 1956, Bellamann was one of the featured speakers at the Authors Breakfast of the biennial convention of the National League of American Pen Women in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Bellamann had two sisters, Mittie J. Huddleston of Jackson and Ephie Jones Morgan of New Orleans, and a brother, Albert Sidney Jones of Jackson. All survived her. She was buried in New York City in 1956.

The poem, “Poets Do Not Die” by Velma Sanders, was written in memory of Katherine Bellamann.

Reviews

A Review of The Hayvens of Demaret

by Elizabeth Smitherman (SHS)

The Hayvens of Demaret is a novel by Katherine Bellamann about Mississippi during the ante-bellum period. The setting of the story was in the Delta of Mississippi.  The main characters, Jeffrey and Noel Hayven, are twin brothers. Jeffrey married Laure, a girl from New Orleans. She was raised differently from the Hayvens. She believed that she should be or at least have control over all men. She falls in love with Noel. Noel first believes he is in love with Laure but realizes that he should never have feelings for her because she is married to his brother. Jeffrey suspects that Laure has fallen in love with another man, but he does not know that Laure is in love with Noel.

The Havyen brothers have a younger sister named Linnet. Linnet falls in love with Tim, a frequent visitor to Demaret. However, she wonders if he loves her. She believes that Tim is in love with Laure. However, she discovers that Noel loves Laure. The next person to fall in love is Helene, a fifteen year old girl. While visiting Demaret, Helene falls in love with Noel. She wonders if Noel loves her. While at Demaret, she creates an awkward situation to figure out whether or not Noel loves her.

Laure becomes pregnant with Jeffrey’s child. Jeffrey believes that the child is not his. Laure wishes she was not pregnant because she believes having a child will take away from her beauty and from the ideal of having a life with Noel. Jeffrey fires his overseer of the plantation because the overseer suggested that Jeffrey watch Laure more closely when she is around Noel. Jeffrey decides to talk to Noel about the overseer’s accusation. Noel leaves Demaret the following day because Jeffrey will not listen or believe a word that Noel says.

According to Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967 by James B. Lloyd, the novel’s main characters “are personification of the ideals and conflicting attitudes that led the South into the Civil War.” Jeffrey and Noel “allay themselves in an effort to protect a common ideal. Out of such pacts, the novel implies, was the Confederacy born.” (27-28).

I thought that this book was very good. It was more of a novel for girls that for guys because it is about love. The book is not offending unless one is angry about the mention of slavery. It was hard to become interested in this book, but it became more interesting when feelings started to make entanglements that would result in drastic measures that changed the plans of the lives of the characters.

However, I would not recommend this book for people to read. It is a great romantic novel; but it was written in a different time period, which makes the book hard to understand. If a person wants to read a book similar to other stereotype romantic novels (where several characters fall in love, but one of the two is already married), then the person should read The Hayvens of Demaret.  Also if one wants to know what happens to the Hayvens, then I suggest reading this book.

An Interview with Patsy Clark Pace, who knew Katherine Bellamann

by Elizabeth Smitherman (SHS)

December 15, 2002.

Mrs. Pace was very considerate and helped me greatly by giving me copies of newspaper articles about Mrs. Bellamann. Mrs. Pace also told me about her meeting Mrs. Bellamann at a Mississippi Poetry meeting, and Mrs. Pace later was fortunate to have Mrs. Bellamann sit next to her at a Mississippi Poetry Festival that was held once a year.

This account is basically what Mrs. Pace told me over the phone about Mrs. Bellamann.

Katherine Bellamann’s love poems were about her husband, Henry Bellamann. She did not have any children, and she considered her husband her great love. She was very close to her husband. Her poems were romantic or about nature and love and about how things were beautiful. Mrs. Bellamann and her husband worked on their writings together. She helped her husband more with his writing rather than working on her own works.

Henry Bellamann

She traveled a lot with her husband. He was the more famous of the two, which is why she did not receive as much recognition as she probably would have. She was know nationwide because of her husband. (Her husband wrote King’s Row, a book that was later made into a movie in which young Ronald Reagan had the leading role.)

In 1955, Mrs. Katherine Bellamann was recognized as the best poet in the state. Mrs. Bellamann wrote a lot of sonnets, which are the hardest poems to write.

Mrs. Pace also said that Mrs. Bellamann’s eyes sparkled. Bellamann was very smart and always understood everything that was going on. She had a good personality and was willing to help others.   She was also very popular in the Jackson and Carthage area. She most likely knew many other authors from that area.

Related Websites

• Biography of Katherine Jones Bellamann
• Henry and Katherine Bellamann Collection at University of Mississippi Libraries

Bibliography

• Bellamann, Katherine J.  The Hayvens of Demaret.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951.
• Lloyd, James B.  Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967.  Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1981.  27-28.
• Lyric Mississippi: An Anthology of Selected Poems.  Vulcan Press, Inc.  Birmingham, Alabama.
• Pace, Patsy Clark.  Telephone interview.  15 December 2002.
• Rampey, L.  “Katherine Jones Bellamann, 1877-1956.”  10 December 2002 <http.//www.geocities.com/LRampey/kjb.htm>
• Toward the Stars.  Mississippi Poetry Society. Jackson, Mississippi: 1949.