August 9, 2025

Introducing Mary Kathryn Gunterman

Mary Kathryn Gunterman Gathof

25 May 1912 – 8 December 1958
Keeper of the Hearth | Survivor of Storms | Mother of Second Chances

Mary Kathryn Gunterman’s story begins in the heart of Louisville in 1912, in a world where horse-drawn wagons still rattled down cobblestone streets and riverboats plied the Ohio. She was the daughter of Stephen “Steve” Gunterman and Lela Maurer — though records list her mother’s name in a few variations over the years.

Raised primarily by her mother after her parents’ separation, Mary grew up learning both the discipline of work and the quiet art of keeping a home together. At just twelve years old, she found herself in the Courier-Journal — not for mischief, but because she was jolted awake by an earthquake’s tremor. She ran to her mother’s side, frightened but safe, in their Bonnycastle Avenue home.

By the age of eighteen, she was already working as a stenographer, contributing to the household alongside her mother. Life moved quickly after that — she married Louis Aloysius Miller Sr., and together they had two children, Mary Ray and Louis Jr. But in the late 1930s, the family’s stability shattered when Louis Sr. abandoned them.

With limited options and the Great Depression’s shadow still lingering, Mary made the agonizing decision to place her children in Catholic orphanages — Mary Ray at St. Vincent’s for Girls, Louis Jr. likely at St. Thomas for Boys. Yet this was not a permanent goodbye. In time, she brought both children back home, giving them a far better life than the one they had endured in those years apart.

Mary remarried in the 1940s to Stephen C. Gathof, and together they presided over a bustling blended household — her children, his children, grandchildren, and his elderly mother all under one roof. Her work as “Keeper of the House” in such a home was nothing short of full-time management, diplomacy, and love.

In December 1958, Mary’s life was cut short by illness at just 46 years old. She left behind a large and intertwined family, a legacy of resilience, and the memory of a woman who had faced life’s upheavals with determination and care.

📜 Want to explore Mary Kathryn’s full story — from a girl startled by an earthquake to a mother who fought to reunite her family? Visit her Family Page for a detailed, milestone-based biography and historical records.

Share Your Memories

Do you have photographs, letters, or family stories about Mary Kathryn? Please share them in the comments below so we can preserve her history together. Every memory, no matter how small, adds to the story of her life.

August 2, 2025

Introducing Louis Aloysius Miller Jr.

Welcome to the Story of Louis Aloysius Miller Jr.

Born: 13 May 1931 or 1932
Died: 3 January 1996
Buried: Memorial Park Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana

He was born twice, according to the records. In two different years, and possibly in two different Kentucky towns. His childhood was marked by the kind of loss you don’t always survive—but somehow, he did. He may have spent his earliest years in the halls of St. Thomas Orphanage, separated from his sister Mary Ray, who was placed in St. Vincent’s across the city. They were reclaimed by their mother, but the shadows never quite let go.

Louis Jr. grew up to serve in the Air Force, marry, and father ten children. And then, he left.

But he didn’t vanish—not really. He kept writing. He kept sending money. He kept trying, in his own quiet, complicated way.

He was a tinkerer, an inventor, a man of codes and circuits. He helped build a computer poker game from scratch, made cabinets by hand, and left faint digital fingerprints in places no one expected to find him.

We may never untangle all the knots in his story. But that’s what this space is for.

🕯️ Have a memory of Louis? A photo? A theory?

Please share it in the comments below. Whether you knew him personally, heard whispers from family, or are following the same research trail, your voice matters here. Every comment helps us bring his story into sharper focus—and preserve it for the next generation.

You can also read the full narrative of his life on Louis’s Family Page.