Biography

Katie Jett was the oldest child in a pioneering Black Latter-day Saint family in eastern Kentucky. Her father, George, converted first and then ensured that the rest of the family also embraced the faith. Katie was thus raised as a Latter-day Saint. As the only known Black family to embrace the Latter-day Saint message in the state of Kentucky at the turn of the twentieth century, the Jetts were trail blazers. They no doubt experienced the difficulties associated with segregation, especially given that the Supreme Court of the United States put its stamp of approval on the practice the year Katie was born. Katie thus grew to adulthood in the segregated South and tragically died young, at age of thirty, well before segregation’s protracted demise.

Katie Jett was born in Jackson, the seat of Breathitt County, on 16 September 1896 to George Jett and Susan Jackson.[1] Two years later, Katie’s younger sister, Sarah, joined the family and the two girls grew up together.[2] When Katie was two, her parents took her to their Latter-day Saint congregation where elders from the church blessed her and her sister Sarah in front of a small gathering of Saints.[3]

Katie and Sarah’s youth was no doubt disrupted when their parents divorced and the two girls remained with their father, George. When Katie was nine years old her father remarried, this time to a woman named Alwilda, who became Katie’s stepmother; Alwilda remained married to her father for the rest of his life.[4] Katie’s biological mother, Susan, moved to Ohio and lived there after separating from George. It is not clear how well Katie knew her biological mother simply because she lived in Ohio for most of Katie’s adult life.[5]

Notwithstanding the challenges of divorce and remarriage, the entire Jett family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. George was the first to commit in 1898, when Katie was just two years old. Missionaries baptized Katie’s mother, Susan, about four months later.[6]

Over a decade later, just over a week before Katie’s thirteenth birthday, she also accepted baptism into the faith. Her sister Sarah and her stepmother Alwilda, were also baptized on the same day. Elder Robert Esdras Bunker, a missionary in the Southern States Mission from St. Thomas, Nevada, baptized all three of them. Elder Martin Anderson from Toquerville, Utah, confirmed Katie and Alwilda, while Elder Bunker confirmed Sarah on the same day that they were baptized.[7]

In 1914, when Katie was eighteen she married a man named Carl Baker, a twenty-two year old day laborer also from Jackson, Kentucky. Carl had been married previously and was already widowed when he married Katie.[8] There is no evidence that the young couple had children together and it is not clear what became of Carl. He may have died or eventually divorced Katie. In either case, Katie married again in 1926 to Alvin Wright, a twenty-six-year-old day laborer from Georgia.[9]

Tragically, Katie and Alvin’s marriage ended just a few months later. Katie died of acute cholecystitis, which occurs when the gallbladder becomes inflamed and swollen from gallstones. She died on 18 February 1927, following surgery to remove her gallbladder.[10] It is difficult to know the circumstances of Katie’s death; it is possible that lack of access to good healthcare for African Americans factored into it, especially in the Jim Crow South. In general, Black people struggled to find access to healthcare, a challenge exacerbated by the fact that hospitals sometimes refused to admit them. The National Urban League (an organization started in New York in an effort to provide better healthcare for African Americans) tried to make a difference where possible. There is no indication that the National Urban League was aware of Katie’s case.[11]

Whatever the circumstances, Katie died young; she was thirty years old when she passed away. She was the first of her immediate family to pass. She left behind her husband, father, mother, stepmother, and sister. She passed away in Irvine, in Estill County, where she and her new husband made their home. Her body was transported back to Jackson, in Breathitt County, for burial.[12] It is not clear if Katie identified as a Latter-day Saint when she died although her father and stepmother continued to do so.

By Serena Juhasz

With research assistance from Amy Stoddard

[1] Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Breathitt County, George Jett and Susan Jackson, 26 July 1894.

[2] United States, 1900 Census, Kentucky, Breathitt County, Jackson; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Kentucky (State), CR 375 8, box 3337, folder 2, image 14, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Kentucky (State), CR 375 8, box 3338, folder 1, image 192, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Kentucky (State), CR 375 8, box 3337, folder 2, image 14, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[4] United States, 1910 Census, Kentucky, Breathitt County, Jackson.

[5] United States, 1920 Census, Ohio, Butler County, Middletown; United States, 1930 Census, Ohio, Butler County, Middletown; Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954, Breathitt County, Kentucky, Susie Jackson and Harry Strong, 10 May 1907.

[6] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Kentucky (State), CR 375 8, box 3337, folder 2, image 132, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[7] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Kentucky (State), CR 375 8, box 3338, folder 1, image 192, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[8] Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky, Katie Jett and Carl Baker, 14 October 1914.

[9] Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Estill County, Kentucky, Katie Jett and Alvin Wright, 29 November 1926.

[10] Kentucky, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificates of Death, File No. 3265, Registered No. 125, Katy Wright, Kentucky Department of Libraries and Frankfort, Franklin, Kentucky; Kentucky, U.S., Death Index, 1911-2000, Katy Wright, 18 February 1927.

[11] “For All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care Reform: The Need for Care,” U.S. National Library of Medicine, accessed June 25, 2024; “National Urban League: Mission and History,” National Urban League, Nul.org, accessed June 25, 2024.

[12] "Colored Notes," Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Kentucky), 21 February 1927, 11; Kentucky, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificates of Death, File No. 3265, Registered No. 125, Katy Wright, Kentucky Department of Libraries and Frankfort, Franklin, Kentucky.

Documents

Click the index tab in the viewer above to view all primary source documents available for this person.