Katherine Oppenheimer

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Kitty Harrison" redirects here. For the tennis coach, see Kitty Harrison (tennis).

Katherine Oppenheimer
Communist
(until 1930s)
Spouses
Frank Ramseyer
​
​
(m. 1932; ann. 1933)​
Richard Stewart Harrison
​
​
(m. 1938; div. 1940)​
​
​
(m. 1940; died 1967)​
Partner(s)Joseph Dallet Jr.
(1934–1937)
Children2

Katherine Vissering "Kitty" Oppenheimer (

Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II
.

Early life

Katherine Vissering "Kitty" Puening was born in

German Army during World War II, and was hanged in 1946.[1][2]

Puening arrived in the United States on May 14, 1913, aboard the

metallurgical engineer, had invented a new kind of blast furnace, and had gained employment with a steel company in Pittsburgh, and the family settled in the suburb of Aspinwall, Pennsylvania. Although her first language was German, she soon became fluent in English, speaking both languages without accent. Her parents regularly took her with them on summer visits to Germany.[1][2]

After graduating from Aspinwall High School in June 1928, Puening enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh.[3] She lived at home and attended freshman classes in mathematics, biology and chemistry. Her father now worked for Koppers, and held patents for the design of blast furnaces.[4][5][6] Puening convinced her parents that it would be a good idea for her to study in Germany, and she sailed for Europe in March 1930. It is doubtful that she took any classes, but she did meet Frank Ramseyer, an American studying music in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, before sailing for home on May 19.[6]

Puening completed the first year of her degree, and married Ramseyer before a

drug addict. Puening also had an abortion.[7]

Communism

At a New Year's Eve party later that year, Puening met

Communist Party of America in 1929. He had been involved in the International Unemployment Day protest in Chicago on March 6, 1930, that was brutally repressed by the authorities, and worked as a union organizer with the steel workers in Youngstown, Ohio. At one point Dallet unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Youngstown on the Communist Party ticket.[8][9]

Puening's parents had moved to

common-law wife. They shared a room in a dilapidated boarding house that cost $5 per month. Gus Hall and John Gates had a room down the hall. They lived on the dole, $12.50 per month each. As the wife of a party member, Puening was allowed to join the Communist Party, but only after proving her loyalty by distributing copies of the Daily Worker on the streets. Her party dues were 10c a week.[10][8]

They separated in June 1936, and Puening went to live with her parents in Claygate, where she worked as a German-to-English translator.[10] Months went by without any word from Dallet, until Puening discovered that her mother had been hiding his letters to her. "Her mother," her friend Anne Wilson recalled, "was a real dragon, a very repressive woman. She disappeared one day over the side of a transatlantic ship, and nobody missed her. That says it all."[11]

The last letter from Dallet said that he was heading to Spain on the

Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, a unit composed of American and Canadian volunteers.[13]

Puening wanted to join Dallet in Spain, and finally secured permission to do so. Her trip to Spain was delayed by hospitalization for an operation on August 26, 1937, for what was initially thought to be appendicitis, but which was determined to be ovarian cysts, which were removed by the German doctors. Puening returned to England to recuperate. Before she could depart for Spain, the news arrived that Dallet had been killed in action on October 17, 1937. His letters to her were published as Letters from Spain by Joe Dallet, American Volunteer, to his Wife (1938).[13][14]

Puening went to see Nelson, who was in Paris, having been wounded in August, and they returned to New York, where she stayed with Nelson and his wife Margaret at their home in

Oxford University, who was completing his internship in the US. They were married on November 23, 1938.[15][16] She later left the Communist Party in the 1930s.[17][18]

Marriage with Oppenheimer

Soon after, Harrison left for

Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist who taught at Caltech for part of each year[19] and the remaining time at University of California, Berkeley. Soon after, they began an affair, one which they did not even attempt to conceal: they were frequently seen around town in Robert's car.[20] At Christmas time she went to Berkeley without her husband, to spend time with Oppenheimer.[21]

Oppenheimer invited Harrison and Kitty to spend the summer at his New Mexico ranch, Perro Caliente. Harrison declined, as he was engaged in his research, but Kitty accepted.

aspen forests and floral meadows of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, camping with minimal food and equipment. Kitty impressed them with her riding ability; horsemanship was a normal accomplishment for women of her social class, and she had learned to ride as a girl on the riding trails around Aspinwall. Kitty and Robert rode out to stay the night with his friend Katy Page in Los Pinos, New Mexico. The following day Page rode to Perro Caliente on her bay horse to return Kitty's nightgown, which had been left under Robert's pillow.[24][22]

Kitty later told Anne Wilson that she got Robert to marry her the "old-fashioned way"—by getting pregnant.[25] In September 1940, Robert informed Harrison, and they agreed that the best way forward was for Kitty to get a divorce so she could marry Robert. Soon after, Robert shared a podium with Nelson to raise money for refugees from the Spanish Civil War, and he informed him that he was engaged to Kitty. Nelson's wife was also pregnant, and he named his daughter, who was born in November 1940, Josie in memory of Dallet. To obtain a divorce, Kitty moved to Reno, Nevada, where she stayed for six weeks to meet the state's residency requirements. The divorce was finalized on November 1, 1940, and Kitty married Oppenheimer the following day in a civil ceremony in Virginia City, Nevada, with the court janitor and clerk as witnesses.[26]

Manhattan Project

Their child, a son they named Peter, was born in Pasadena, on May 12, 1941, during Oppenheimer's regular session at Caltech. When they returned to Berkeley, he bought a new house at One Eagle Hill with a view over the Golden Gate. Kitty worked at the University of California as a laboratory assistant. They left Peter with the Chevaliers and a German nurse and headed out to Perro Caliente for the summer. The holiday was marred when Oppenheimer was trampled by a horse, and Kitty injured her leg when she hit a car in front of her while driving their Cadillac convertible.[27][28] The United States entered World War II in December 1941, and Oppenheimer began recruiting staff for the Manhattan Project. Among the first were the Serbers, who moved into the apartment over the garage at One Eagle Hill.[29]

On March 16, 1943, the couple boarded a train for

William S. Parsons.[31] She put her biologist training to use working for the director of the Health Group at Los Alamos, Louis Hempelmann, conducting blood tests to assess the danger of radiation.[32]

In 1944, Kitty became pregnant again. Her second child, a girl, was born on December 7, 1944. She named her Katherine after her mother but called her Toni. Like other babies born in wartime Los Alamos, Toni's birth certificate gave the place of birth as P.O. Box 1663.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Kitty returned with Peter to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to live with her parents. They returned to Los Alamos in July 1945.[34][35]

Later life

With the end of the war in August 1945, Oppenheimer had become a celebrity, and Kitty had become an alcoholic. She suffered a series of bone breaks from drunken falls and car crashes.

orchids; for her birthdays Oppenheimer had rare species flown in from Hawaii.[41][42] Olden Manor was sometimes known as "Bourbon Manor";[43] Kitty and Robert liked to keep the liquor cabinet well stocked, and like many of their generation, liked to celebrate cocktail hour with martinis, Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and highballs. Both were also fond of smoking,[44] and Kitty's habit of combining too much alcohol with smoking in bed led to a plethora of holes in her bedding and at least one house fire.[37] She sometimes took too many pills, and suffered from abdominal pains caused by pancreatitis. Pain often prompted outbursts of anger.[45]

In 1952, Toni contracted polio, and doctors suggested that a warmer climate might help. The family flew to the Caribbean, where they rented a 72-foot (22 m) ketch. Robert and Kitty discovered a shared love of sailing, while Toni soon recovered. The family spent part of each summer on Saint John in the Virgin Islands, eventually building a beach house there on Gibney Beach.[46]

On January 6, 1967, Robert was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, and he died on February 18, 1967.

cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn, which she took to St. John and dropped into the sea off the coast, within sight of the beach house.[48]

She took up with

Galapagos Islands and Tahiti. They set out, but Kitty became ill, and was taken to Gorgas Hospital in Panama City, where she died of an embolism on October 27, 1972. Serber and Toni had her remains cremated, and they scattered her ashes near Robert's.[49][50][51]

In popular culture

Portrayals of Kitty in popular culture include:

References

  1. ^ a b Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 154–155.
  2. ^ a b Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 9–10, 26–27.
  3. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 42–43.
  4. ^ US 1542955  Heating method and apparatus
  5. ^ US 1799702  Heating apparatus
  6. ^ a b Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 78–79.
  7. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 80–82.
  8. ^ a b c Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 156–157.
  9. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 89–90.
  10. ^ a b c Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 93–94, 97–98.
  11. ^ Conant 2005, p. 184.
  12. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 104–105.
  13. ^ a b "Joseph Dallet, Jr". Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  14. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 111–117.
  15. ^ a b Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 119.
  16. ^ a b Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 158–161.
  17. ^ Stern 1969, p. 357. "I left the Communist Party. I did not leave my past, the friendships, just like that. Some continued for a while."
  18. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 534–535.
  19. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 120–121.
  20. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 161.
  21. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 125–126.
  22. ^ a b Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 162.
  23. ^ Serber & Crease 1998, p. 51.
  24. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 128–129.
  25. ^ Conant 2005, p. 186.
  26. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 162–163.
  27. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 164–165.
  28. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 138–139.
  29. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 141–142.
  30. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 213–214.
  31. ^ Conant 2005, p. 179.
  32. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 51.
  33. ^ Conant 2005, pp. 262–263.
  34. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 204–211.
  35. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 263–264.
  36. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 207.
  37. ^ a b Wolverton 2008, p. 176.
  38. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 333–335.
  39. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 351.
  40. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, pp. 360–365.
  41. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 369.
  42. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 234–235.
  43. ^ Wolverton 2008, p. 270.
  44. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 243.
  45. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 276.
  46. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 251.
  47. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, p. 295.
  48. ^ Bird & Sherwin 2005, p. 588.
  49. ^ Streshinsky & Klaus 2013, pp. 301–302.
  50. ^ Serber & Crease 1998, pp. 220–221.
  51. ^ "Mrs. J. Robert Oppenheimer, 62, Nuclear Physicist's Widow, Dies". The New York Times. October 29, 1972. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  52. ^ Shales, Tom (May 11, 1982). "The Man Behind the Bomb". Washington Post. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  53. ^ "Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  54. ^ Otterson, Joe (October 27, 2015). "Neve Campbell Makes Things Weird in New 'Manhattan' Teaser (Exclusive Video)". TheWrap. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  55. ^ Evans, Greg (August 18, 2015). "Neve Campbell Takes 'Manhattan', New WGN America Trailer Confirms". Deadline. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  56. ^ Moss, Molly; Knight, Lewis (July 22, 2023). "Oppenheimer cast: Full list of actors in Christopher Nolan film". Radio Times. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  57. ^ Collis, Clark (July 21, 2023). "Oppenheimer cast: Who plays who in Christopher Nolan's real-life drama". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  58. ^ "Oscar Nominations 2024: 'Oppenheimer' Dominates With 13 Nods, 'Poor Things' Follows With 11". Variety. January 23, 2024. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
  59. ^ Paul, Larisha (January 23, 2024). "Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, America Ferrera Become First Time Oscar Nominees". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 23, 2024.

Sources

External links
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