The Liaison of Big Nose Kate and Doc Holliday

Mary Katherine Horony, Big Nose Kate, was born November 7, 1850 in Pest, Hungary. She was the long-time companion/common law wife of gunfighter Doc Holliday. She was the second oldest daughter of a Hungarian physician, Dr. Michael Horony. In 1860, he and his second wife Katharina and children traveled to the United States on board the ship Bremen. Her father was appointed the personal surgeon of Mexico’s Emperor Maximillian in 1862. After leaving that position and some traveling, the family made their home in Davenport, Iowa in a largely German community. Kate’s parents both passed away within a month of each other in 1865. After being moved around from place to place, Kate and her younger siblings ended up in foster care. At the age of 16, Kate took off from the foster home and snuck onto a riverboat headed for St. Louis, Missouri. She met a dentist named Silas Melvin, had a child, but sadly lost both of them in the same year. She stayed there until 1874 when she set out for Dodg