Barrett, Kate Harwood Waller

(Jan. 24, 1858-Feb. 23, 1925). Pioneer in Progressive Era women's ministries. She was born in Falmouth, Virginia. She attended the Arlington Institute for Girls in Alexandria. On July 19, 1876, she married the Rev. Robert South Barrett, rector of the church at nearby Aquia, Virginia. The family moved to Henderson, Kentucky, where she helped her husband do pastoral work among prostitutes. When he became dean of St. Luke's Cathedral, Atlanta, in 1886, she enrolled in the Women's Medical College of Georgia and received her M.D. in 1892. The following year, with another woman, she opened a home for unwed mothers. She received $5,000 from Charles N. Crittenton, the “millionaire evangelist,” who devoted himself to preaching and rescuing prostitutes. The Barrett family moved to Alexandria in 1894, and in 1895 the National Florence Crittenton Mission was established, with Charles Crittenton as president and Barrett as vice-president and general superintendent. On Charles Crittenton's death in 1909, Barrett became president of the National Florence Crittenton Mission. She belonged to a number of women's groups and was an advocate for women's suffrage. She died in Alexandria, Virginia.