Kate Brewington Bennett
1818–1855
St. Louis Beauty
Regarded as the most beautiful woman in St. Louis, she died suddenly at the age of 37. Her very white complexion had been the envy of many. An autopsy revealed that she had been taking small doses of arsenic to retain her desired paleness, not realizing that arsenic was a cumulative poison. Her husband, one of Bellefontaine’s original trustees, erected an elaborate Gothic canopy of white marble, once considered the finest memorial in the cemetery.