Kitty is the youngest of the five children of a prominent Salem family in financial decline. Her father was just barely able to pay for her four years at Wellesley, where she witnessed the fire that destroyed College Hall in 1914. After completing her degree, Kitty married Lt. Stephen Halloran, a young Army officer from another local prominent family, with whom one of her older brothers had been friendly. This eased the financial burden on her family and provided Kitty with a brief period of true happiness and freedom from financial concern.

Kitty’s husband and two oldest brothers (both West Point grads) shipped out when the U.S. entered the Great War. Her brothers would eventually return, but a telegram in the spring of 1918 made it clear that Stephen would not. Kitty retreated to her parents’ home to grieve, but soon realized that she needed to do something with herself to avoid sinking into a depression. She started looking for work as a reporter, and was hired to write for the Society page of the Arkham Gazette. Living on her writing income and the moderate inheritance that Stephen left her, she continues to wear her wedding ring, both in memory of her lost husband and because a married woman commands a bit more respect than a single one.