Catherine Sarah Wood Marshall LeSourd (September 27, 1914 – March 18, 1983)[1] was an American author of nonfiction, inspirational, and fiction works.
[1] From the age of nine until her graduation from high school, Marshall was raised in Keyser, West Virginia,[1] where her father served as pastor of a Presbyterian church from 1924 to 1942.
[1] The couple moved to Washington, D.C., where her husband served as pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and Chaplain of the United States Senate.
[1] Her husband died in 1949 of a heart attack, leaving her to care for their nine-year-old son, Peter John Marshall.
Her most successful books were A Man Called Peter (1951); and her novel, Christy (1967), which was inspired by the story of her mother's time in the mountains teaching the impoverished children of Appalachia.