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Katherine Bell Tippetts (March 11, 1865 - December 20, 1950) was an American conservationist, community activist, business owner, essayist, novelist, poet, founder and long-time president of the St. Petersburg Audobon Society, Florida's Audobon Society's first female president, humanitarian, club woman, wife and mother.

Early Life
Born Emily Katherine Bell in Somerset County, Maryland, the daughter of Nathaniel Thomas and Julia Frances (Hawkes) Bell. She married in 1890 to William H. Tippetts and they had four children.

Her great-grandmothers ancestors descended from Isaac Allerton, a lieutenant-governer under Governor Bradford of Massachusetts and a signer of the Mayflower Pact.

Mrs. Tippetts grew up in Maryland from a widely known family. She married William H. Tippetts in 1890. Her husband, William H. Tippetts, was a well known international newspaper correspondent.

By 1892, his job allowed for them to travel abroad to Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 1902, the Tippetts family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida due to specific reasons most notably for Mr. Tippetts in hopes that the sub-tropical weather would benefit and increase his health.

The Tippetts had four children, three sons and a daughter. While at St. Petersburg, FL they bought the Lake View House hotel and renamed it the Bellmont House Hotel commonly known as the Belmont Hotel.

Mr. Tippetts died in 1909.

Early Responsibilities
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Tippetts raised their four children.

Education
Mrs Tippetts majored in foreign languages with tutors at private girls school allowing her to be versed in four languages: Spanish, Italian, French and German.

Career
Mrs Tippetts resumed the family business of hotel operation and various real estate interests. She never remarried and ran the hotel until her death.

Later Life and Accomplishments
"During the early twentieth century, the most remarkable woman in St. Petersburg was almost certainly Katherine Tippetts. A talented writer, fluent in four languages, she published scores of essays, short stories, and novels. [However], she spent most of her time working for the cause of conservation. In 1909, Tippetts founded the St. Petersburg Audubon Society, which she served as president for thirty three years. The Society distributed information about birds in danger. By the 1920's she had gained a national reputation as a conservationist."

Conservation in the United States became a political topic during the Progressive Era in the early 20th century under Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Natural resources such as parks, water, forests, and native animal species became a subject of protection. In 1909 Mrs Tippetts having previously been keenly interest in birds, founded the St. Petersburg Audubon Society (SPAS) to protect birds from hunters killing birds on a mass scale to sell their plumes for a profit.

Mrs. Tippetts was dubbed the "Florida Bird Woman" using her connections to win state and local protections including bird sanctuaries and the passage of a law in 1913 to establish the creation of the Florida Game and Fish Commission.

The Florida Audubon Society (FAS) was organized in 1900. Mrs. Tippetts became the first female president from 1921 through 1924.

She served as President of the American Forestry Association. She also chaired the Florida Chamber of Commerce and presided over Florida's Federation of Women's Club's, a member of the Florida State Reclamation Board, a trustee of both the National Park Association and the National Camp Fire Girls.

In provincial affairs, in 1915 she renamed the Reservoir Lake to Mirror Lake, serving as a memorial of her late husband's newspaper, the Lake George Mirror. Mrs. Tippetts served on local hospital and parks boards. In 1919 she established the city's first Boy Scout troop.

In 1926 Mrs. Tippetts along with the American Legion Post 14, created a crippled Children's Hospital which is currently the site of All Children's Hospital. The hospital has become a leading center for pediatric treatment.

Through her own efforts, as of April 23rd, 1927 Florida's Senate approved and adopted the Mockingbird as the state bird. Serving as an American flower commissioner, Mrs. Tippetts helped establish the wild rose as the national flower. In 1922 Mrs. Tippetts sought to be elected to the Florida House Senate. She was defeated finishing second out of four.

Katherine Bell Tippets made her mark, radiating civic involvement as an author and activist. Much of early St. Petersburg prospered from the hard labor and political influence of the Women's Town Improvement Association through prominent members such as Mrs. Tippetts.

During the 200th anniversary of our first president's birthday, Mrs. Tippetts traveled to Denver, Colorado, in 1932 and planted the first George Washington Tree. In 1892, Mrs. Tippetts used the pen name Jerome Cable in a light romance novel published by her husband titled Prince Arengzeba: a Romance of Lake George.

She Chaired the General Federation of Women's Clubs from 1928 through 1932 (pressing states and women's groups to name state birds)having previously Chaired the Nature Study and Wild Life Refuge from 1924 through 1928.

Mrs. Tippetts was also a member of the Florida Educational Survey Commission, State Board of Illiteracy, and the National Board of Finances of the YWCA.

Mrs. Tippetts became and remained SPAS president until 1940. The St. Petersburg Audubon Society is still in existence today.

Death
On December 20th, 1950, at 6 in the evening, at the age of 85 Mrs. Tippetts died of respiratory failure at her home in Pinellas Point.

Fiction
Cable, Jerome. 1892. Prince Arengzeba a romance of Lake George. Glens Falls, N.Y.: W.H. Tippetts

St. Petersburg Audubon Society (SPAS)
http://www.stpeteaudubon.org/