Katharine Sergeant Haven was born on April 9, 1898, in Manhattan, New York to Joseph Woodward Haven and Henrietta Katherine Haven. She was the oldest of the Haven’s two daughters. The Haven family of New York were prominent members in high society of good family name and social standing, involved in notable social clubs, charitable causes, the founding of the Metropolitan Opera House, and in the banking, real estate, and railroad sectors. At the start of World War I, Katherine’s mother, Henrietta, joined other socialites in providing aid for war relief, converting part of the Haven family’s estate in Lenox into a Victory Garden. During World War I, class status typically denoted how women aided the war effort. Upper class women in World War I served primarily as founders and members of voluntary wartime organizations due to the time and money they could devote to such efforts. Henrietta Katherine Haven was known to dedicate tremendous effort to various charitable causes hosted at the family’s French-style mansion at No. 18 East 79th Street. In adulthood, Katherine would follow in her mother’s footsteps, hosting benefit sales, receptions, and other charitable events. Katherine Sergeant Haven married Johnston Livingston Redmond on June 5, 1919, in Katherine’s family home on East 79th Street, her little sister Edith serving as one of the two flower girls. The couple lived in one of the Redmond mansions at No. 705 Park Avenue until 1929 when Johnston purchased No. 117-119 East 70th Street. It is at this location they raised their four children: Katharine Sergeant, Moira Livington, Thomas Johnston Livingston, and Joseph Woodward. Following Johnston Livingston Redmond’s death on February 12, 1933, Katherine married William Henry Osborn, an executive at Phelps Dodge, in April 1940. Katherine and William would remain in the 70th Street home, Katherine having inherited all of Johnstone’s properties.

Following the start of World War II, Katherine continued her charity work becoming Vice Chairman in charge of women’s war bond activities in Manhattan, New York, and the former head of the women’s speaker’s bureau of the State War Finance Committee. In addition to her war-time volunteer service, she served as a board member of the Community Service Society and the New York Hospital Social Service, as well as a member on the advisory committee for the Cooper Union Art School. She continued to be actively involved in social and philanthropic efforts until the time of her death on January 11, 1974, at age 75.

Joan Allen Livingston was born on March 27, 1898, in Pelham Manor, New York to Frederick Hobbes Allen and Adele Livingston Stevens Allen. Frederick Hobbes Allen was the son of the late Honorable Elisha Hunt Allen, a United States diplomat and congressman. The year before the United States entered World War I, the Allen’s were living in France as Frederick Hobbes Allen served as one of a commission of four men in the Lafayette Escadrille. When the United States joined the war, he was made Lieutenant Commander of the United States Navel Reserve Flying Corps before becoming an aide to the commander of United States flying forces in France in 1917, which was headquartered in Paris. The rest of the family followed suit, serving in World War I in various ways, the exception being the youngest daughter who was only 12 years old in 1917. Allen’s mother, Adele Livingston Stevens Allen was head of the American Committee for Devastated France. Allen’s sister, Barbara, was head of the American Committee for Devastated France’s motor department. Allen’s brother, Frederic, served in the U.S. Navy Flying Corps. Joan, herself, volunteered at the Red Cross Hospital No. 1 in Paris, formerly the American Ambulance Hospital at the Lycee Pasteur School building in Paris, France. The hospital was the first foreign ambulance to be accepted by the French government that served French soldiers during the war. The hospital operated from 1914-1917 until the American Red Cross took over in 1917.

Joan, her parents, and her sisters returned to New York on June 9, 1919, aboard the La Savoie. In September 1919, Joan married Goodhue Livingston, Jr., who had returned to the United States on the same ship. Joan died on August 26, 1964 at the age of 66.

Johnston Livingston Redmond was born on July 19, 1888, in Tivoli, New York, to Geraldyn Redmond and Estelle Maud Livingston Redmond. He was the oldest of three brothers. Johnston’s mother was a member of one of New York’s oldest old-money families, directly descended from Robert Livingston who received a land grant from Queen Anne in 1673 that later became the Manor of Livingston. Johnston’s father inherited his wealth from the linen business passed down to him from his father, William Redmond, as well as the fortune that came from his banking firm, Redmond & Co. Johnston attended Harvard, graduating in 1911 with a degree in architecture. During World War I, he served as an ensign on the U.S. destroyer Stevens in European waters. Following his father’s sudden death on November 27, 1918, Johnston inherited the family’s ancestral home known as Callendar House. Located in Clermont, New York, the house was built on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River in 1794 by Henry Livingston. He later acquired No. 113-119 East 70th Street in New York that served as the family’s main home and a second country estate, The Plains, in Virginia. He and his family regularly traveled between the three homes, entertaining on their 81-foot yacht De Grasse moored in Tivoli, New York.

Like his wife, Katherine Sergeant Haven, he dedicated his time and money to various charitable causes and social activities. Johnston was active in civic life in Dutchess County, the location of his family’s ancestral home, representing the County Boys Scout’s Council in the National Council for the Boy Scouts of America. He also served as a trustee of Vassar Brothers Hospital and of the Northern Dutchess Health Service Center, aided in relief work near Red Hook, New York, and worked as a director of the First National Bank of Red Hook. In January 1933, as the family traveled from Callendar House to their estate in Virginia, Johnston fell ill with the flue, leaving him bedridden. His condition worsened, developing into pneumonia after rushing his wife to the hospital following a fall from her horse that broke both of her legs. Johnston died a week later on February 12, 1933.

John “Jack” Campbell White was born on March 17, 1884, Henry White and Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White. Jack served with the United States Foreign Service from 1914-1945, at one point assigned to the American Legation in Siam (modern-day Thailand). He later became U.S. Ambassador, first to Haiti, then to Peru.