WELTER, KATHERINE J. KESSLER (1901-14 June 1992), opened and managed an all-woman real estate office, Katherine J. Welter Real Estate, Inc., in Cleveland before WORLD WAR II, and helped secure mortgage loans for single professional WOMEN. Welter was born in Transylvania, then a part of Austria-Hungary, to Martin and Katie Zaker Kessler. While her father fought in WORLD WAR I, she helped care for her ill mother and siblings. Welter worked as a governess following the war, until she came to Cleveland at age 19. She was employed as a housekeeper and in a knitting mill before marrying cabinetmaker and singing waiter Rudolph Welter on 17 Dec. 1921. They had two daughters, Kay Everson and Ruth Mistretta. The couple restored an estate on Chardon Road, ran a butcher shop and a beauty shop and sold corsets before Welter went into real estate.
In 1956 Welter represented the CLEVELAND AREA BOARD OF REALTORS at an international conference in Vienna, Austria. An avid dancer who won local and national competitions, Welter belonged to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio. After her husband's death in 1972, Welter moved to BRATENAHL. She died in a nursing home in Willowbrook, IL.
Last Modified: 15 May 2001 02:08:20 PM- Related Article(s)