Kate Chopin (1850 -1904) passed away on August 22, 1904 at the age of 54. She was born Catherine O'Flaherty on the 8th of February, 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri, as the third of five daughters. The O'Flaherty family had both French and Irish roots, tracing their ancestry to mobile Creoles and mixed-race Creoles of color of the French colonial period in Louisiana. After attending various private Catholic schools, Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and moved to New Orleans, where she eventually had six children. In 1884, her husband passed away, leaving Kate with the financial burdens of both his estate and her family, leading her to pursue a full-time writing career. Kate Chopin was best known for her writings of feminism and female independence. Her work challenged the preconceived notion of what it meant to be a female during a time in which women were widely relegated to societal roles associated with giving care and nurturing. Her short stories and novels displayed her view of, and sentiment about, the bonds tying women to the society they lived in – bonds created by convention, culture, laws, morals and expectation. Kate Chopin's influence on literature is still felt. Her exploration of boundary-breaking topics of 19th century sexuality, mixed with culture and natural environment, acted as a forerunner to the 20th century women's movement. Her legacy is one of compassion, openness, and courage - not only for art, but also for the women's movement. She will be remembered as an author of courage, who lived her life by her own rules.