Catherine M. Smith was born on October 29, 1882, into an impoverished Chicago family. Like her two older brothers and her younger sister, Kitty would have lived a bland, unremarkable, gray life if not for a terrible incident that forever changed her life and ultimately made her wealthy, adorable, and famous throughout America.
Kitty
When Kitty was nine, her mother died suddenly, leaving her daughter in the "care" of a lustful father - a complete alcoholic. That same year, on Thanksgiving, Catherine's dad was so "fed up" that she decided to refuse to cook dinner for him and run for drinks. For which Mr. Smith beat Kitty, and then put her hands in a hot oven and held them there until the hands and forearms of the "naughty" daughter were charred. Her arms had to be amputated to three-inch stumps at Cook County Hospital, where she remained in intensive care until February 1892.
The state punished the fanatic Smith to the fullest extent of the law, and Kitty spent several years in an orphanage in Illinois. Soon, a certain Dr. Gregg drew attention to the trouble and fate of the girl and organized a charitable foundation to raise funds for Miss Smith's education in both school sciences and the skills of life without hands. The Kitty Smith Foundation turned out to be a successful project, there were good specialists who taught the girl to use her feet and their toes to perform various household and creative activities. Kitty liked most of all to write with her feet, and also to draw - with a pencil and paints. She could also play with her toes on the piano, type on a typewriter and embroider on silk. The girl learned all this in less than 3 years, and in 1896 she moved to Wisconsin for the money of the Foundation, where she went to a school for ordinary children.
The graduation ball took place in 1905. Kitty was in her 22nd year and could no longer be fully supported. By that time, her father was already buried in the grave, her brothers earned pennies as laborers, and someone adopted her younger sister. Miss Smith decided to make money on her own evil destiny. With her toes, the girl printed autobiographical sketches, embroidered napkins, and drew animals. All this was sent by mail to potential buyers. The letters were accompanied by special postcards with a return address and a pocket for a 25-cent coin. That is, only those who were somehow excited about her story were paid for the talents of the armless Kitty. Thanks to her titanic perseverance and optimism, by the spring of 1906, Miss Smith had earned 35 thousand dollars in "quarters". This means that Kitty managed to send out about 100 thousand letters with her "nails"!
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In her stories, Kitty never mentioned her fiend-father: "The dead are either good or nothing." She wrote that she lost her arms due to her own stupid curiosity, having fallen into the fire after … drank a glass of liquor. Human mercy has not diminished from such a "burden of circumstances".
With the dollars she earned, Catherine Smith opened her own company.
In 1913, Illinois gave women the right to vote. Kitty went to the polls and signed the ballot with her foot.
In the 1930s, Kitty Smith went on a permanent tour with troupes of the best circuses in the United States, showing people the wonders of toe control. What Miss Smith did after quitting the circus, and how many years this incredibly strong-willed and talented woman lived, we and world history, unfortunately, do not know.