[1] Perhaps best known for appearing in over 1000 of her husband's paintings including Black Dress (1960), Katz was also a biologist at Sloan Kettering, as well as one of the founders of the Eye and Ear Theater.

Katz's father Vincenzo, a typesetter for a local newspaper, had been forced to leave Italy because of his opposition to the rise of Italian Fascism.

Upon his arrival in New York, Del Moro found work for Il Progresso, an Italian-language newspaper based in lower Manhattan.

Katz's siblings had attended New York University, but after starting there herself she elected to go to Brooklyn College (to and from which she spent four hours per day commuting) because of its lower tuition costs.

While on her Fulbright, she met several people who would remain important to her, including Margaret De Popolo, Tom Boutis and his wife Betty, and Eric Von Schmidt.

Poets and artists involved included John Ashbery, Edwin Denby, Laura Dean, Paul Taylor, Red Grooms, David Hockney and Jennifer Bartlett.