Wilella Cather (rhymes with gather) was born on December 7, 1873, in the home of her short, stalwart, maternal grandmother, Rachel Boak, in Back Creek Valley (near Gore), on the northwest tip of Virginia. The oldest of seven children, Willa was named for an aunt who died of diphtheria. She hated her given, or Christian, name and as soon as she had some say about the matter, friends and family knew her as "Willie." She called herself "William" as an adolescent, and she signed her early college papers "William Cather, Jr." Throughout her life — even among family — she insisted that she had been born in 1876.
Willa's father, Charles, was tall and fair, with the manners of a southern gentleman. As a young man, he'd studied law for a couple of years and, because of his helpful nature, neighbors often asked for his help in settling disputes. Willa's mother, Jennie, was the dominant parent, and, according to biographer E. K. Brown, when necessary, she disciplined her children with a rawhide whip; in later years, none of them seemed to resent the whippings and even declared them beneficial. Mrs. Cather, however, gave her children the freedom to do almost anything they wished, so long as they obeyed household rules.
When Willa was about a year old, her parents moved a mile or so to her grandfather William Cather's farm, Willow Shade, named for the multitude of willow trees surrounding the house. The soil at Willow Shade was too poor for farming, so most of the family's income came from raising sheep. Willa enjoyed going with her father to drive in the sheep, just as she equally enjoyed being read to by Grandmother Boak, who lived with the family.
