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Kate Chopin Kate Chopin, nee Catherine O’Flaherty, was born “[…]according to her baptismal certificate, on February 8th1850 […]” (Toth 3), in St Louis Missouri. Her birth date has also been cited as February 8th 1851 (Bloom 11) and July 12th 1850 (Skaggs ix). Throughout her life, Kate was surrounded by many strong independent women, who all became her mentors in one way or another. Whether it was the kind, learned nuns she had as teachers, the proud independent widows, friends, and relations of her mother, or the life time friendships she forged with several girls from her early school days, the relationships and emotions she garnered from these women helped lay the foundations for some of American Literature’s most colorful and controversial stories. In 1870, Kate met and married Oscar Chopin, a Creole New Orleans native. Oscar was a cotton grower, and he and Kate spent the first 9 years of their marriage living and working on his cotton farm. Kate Chopin was, according to Harold Bloom, throughout her marriage “[…]an exemplary wife” (Bloom 11), and her daughter is quoted later as saying she was “�