Mover and Shaker: Remarkable Woman Making Her Mark in a Man’s World

By Kathrine Dana Shaw with Cynthia Shaw Bowers

A frank and inspiring story about a remarkable woman, Kathrine Dana Shaw, the closest and oldest living relative of Richard Henry Dana Jr. who wrote the world's best-seller book Two Years Before the Mast and established maritime law to protect abused sailors from cruel captains at sea. Kay, encouraged by the Danas to seek a writing profession, chose instead to pursue a life in acting which she thought would be the solution to save her mother, siblings, and herself from abject poverty. During Kay's childhood, she witnessed time and time again God's miraculous provision through trees, which Kay could climb and throw down nuts or fruit for herself and hungry siblings below; fallen branches she burned for warmth; leaves to obscure her body from a wicked stepfather; and God's care through kind neighbors, strangers, and family members who came to the rescue when she had no other options. Like her uncle Ross Ilif Dana, an astute businessman, newspaper editor, politician, and civic and religious leader, who adopted Kay after her mother died of pneumonia and mentored her in publicity, public relations, and successful business development, Kay gives God the credit for giving her the opportunity as a teen to work in the newspaper, construction, and camping rental businesses owned by her uncle, which prepared her for future business endeavors. As a young woman living in Orange County, California, with confidence, being business savvy, and having a contagious smile, she stepped into a man's world, ready to leave her own mark in business. Kay's first business, Cathrine Coleman's Charm School, provided the catalyst to meet Mr. Walter Knott, owner of Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, California.

Walter Knott, recognizing immediately Katherine's knack for publicity, offered her employment at Knott's. Kay flatly refused and told him, "I only want to work for myself." After giving Kay a personal tour of the Bird Cage Theatre, he asked for her honest opinion of the show. She told him frankly, "The actors are amateur, and I can bring in a professional cast that will enable the theater to make money." Walter believed in Kay's ability to publicize and produce and allowed her to lease the theater. Kay, true to her word, brought in a seasoned cast, including Dean Jones (pre-Disney), whom she knew from the Drunkard on Hollywood and Vine, California, and Skip Young ("Ozzie and Harriet").

Kay, attired in her Spanish dress, twirled, stomped her feet, and danced Flamenco to draw crowds in front of the Bird Cage Theater. Kay's first play she publicized and produced, Streets of New York, was a smashing success. Kay named the troupe "The Birdcage Players." Many more successful shows followed. Later, Kay met her husband, C. Fulton Shaw, owner and operator of Old MacDonald's Farm at Knott's Berry Farm, where Kay developed another business "The Party Garden" with a children's marionette theater. Kay was off and running and brought in newspaper, radio, and television publicity to gain public recognition for the Berry Farm. With Kathrine's love of historical films, she decided to help produce the film The Real Story of the Civil War, directed by Louis Stoman, which won an Oscar in 1957 for Best Short Film. Kay continued to develop her writing skills, as her uncle Ilif Ross Dana had hoped, and wrote, directed, and produced plays for her community in San Juan Capistrano, California. Kay, following in her famous Dana family's footsteps, began to lead in political, civic, and religious endeavors. Kay's story will encourage women, the downtrodden and poor, to branch out and trust God to "pull the ox out of the mire" and provide provision and a path to new beginnings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886162509

Book preview

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Mover and Shaker

Remarkable Woman Making Her Mark in a Man’s World

Kathrine Dana Shaw with Cynthia Shaw Bowers

ISBN 979-8-88616-249-3 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88943-298-2 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88616-250-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Kathrine Dana Shaw with

Cynthia Shaw Bowers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

There are various spellings of Kathrine throughout the book since she realized as an adult, after viewing her birth certificate, that her name was spelled with a K and not C.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Prologue

Seedling

Sprout

Shoot

Branch

Bud

Flower

Blossom

About the Author

About the Co-Author

To despondent souls in despair and seekers searching a guiding light illuminating a straight path—during turbulent troubles laden with deep, wide pits and darkest of nights.

—Kathrine

With appreciation and gratitude to our editor, Mark Alan Bowers, for your expertise in editing, love of history, and most importantly, bringing to our attention people who remembered and wondered what became of the lady in the green dress.

—Kathrine Dana Shaw

—Cynthia Kay Shaw Bowers

No matter where we lived, God always provided trees.

Trees were my friends,

Providing fruit and nuts within my grasp,

awaiting sibling's hungry, gobbling mouths,

shaking off branches for burning, warmth.

Always trees heard, obeyed Creator's call,

"Lower, stretch out your arms, hold still,

keep fast, hushed, shelter, hide my precious one."

Soon my clamoring climbing outstretched arms and legs,

reached high tree tops, sheltering, hiding—me,

far away, out of reach, from a vile wicked stepfather.

Kathrine Dana Shaw

Prologue

Kathrine Dana, the closest living relative to Richard Henry Dana, world-renowned author of Two Years Before the Mast and responsible for writing maritime laws to protect sailors from unjust treatment by sea captains, and descendant of Catherine Howard, Queen of England, grew up during the second depression in the 1920s, struggling to survive in Mesa, Arizona with her mother and siblings, after her father, Almon Dana, the youngest sheriff on the Arizona police force, was killed in a motorcycle accident while on duty. Her mother, Doris Dana, looked for employment yet could only find part-time work in Arizona.

Kathrine grew up barefoot with no money for shoes, using newspapers for blankets, ashamed of midnight moves to escape landlords, sporadic schooling, and carrying rocks in paper lunch sacks to mask food, always ready to forage for food and survive by any means necessary—without violating any of man's natural rights. With a mother teaching her prayers and faith in God and speaking words of life and encouragement, Kathrine believed she would be the one to someday pull her beloved mother and siblings out of a life of abject poverty. With star-like qualities of beauty, sparkle, and intelligence, Kathrine was determined to do just that. This is a story of Kathrine's faith in God, inner drive, charm, and contagious enthusiasm, which moved all who met her and shook them out of apathy and on an uncharted course, which impacted their lives as much as her own.

Chapter 1

Seedling

Inever knew my father, Almon Dana. He was around twenty-one years old, serving as the youngest sheriff in Mesa, Arizona, when he was killed in a motorcycle crash while in the line of duty. People who knew him called him Sonny Boy since he had a happy, sunny disposition.

I remember the early days with my mother, whom I dearly loved. I vividly recall going on a train with her to California in search of the man she fell in love with after my father's death. She became pregnant with his child, and I remember he would throw me up in his arms; I would laugh and hoped he would become my daddy. But after my mother became pregnant, he left us, and we did not see or find him again. Years later as an adult, I met his widow who showed me his pictures and shared many happy memories she had with him. This woman resembled my mother in looks. I did not have the heart to tell her of my past remembrances and feelings of abandonment and grief looking for him as a child with my mother. My little brother, Richard, never knew his real father. Later, I would name my one and only son after him.

We had little money, and I grew up learning how to survive. My mother spent many days looking for a job, but jobs were scarce during this time, and she could only find a part-time job working at a popcorn stand. There was simply no extra money for shoes, and I went barefoot most of the time.

The newspaper boy would leave us a Sunday edition newspaper every week. We used the newspapers as blankets to keep warm at night, and I used the funny pages to learn to read. I taught myself to sound out words by looking at the comic pictures when I was around four years old. Then I figured out later on my own how to