Katherine Paterson Biography

Jacob Have I Loved About the Author

Katherine Womeldorf Paterson was born on October 31, 1932, in TsingTsiang-pu, China, where her parents were missionaries. World War II forced the family to flee China twice. Paterson moved to the United States when she was eight but found life in North Carolina as alien as life in China.

Educated at King College in Tennessee, the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Virginia, and Union Theological Seminary in New York, Paterson followed in her parents' footsteps, serving as a missionary in Japan from 1957 to 1962 after a brief stint as a public school teacher in Lovettsville, Virginia. After marrying John Paterson on July 14, 1962, Paterson moved with her husband first to Takoma Park, Maryland, and then to Norfolk, Virginia. The couple has four children.

Paterson's experiences as a practicing Presbyterian, a southerner, and a child of missionary parents, influence all of her work, imbuing...
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