On September 11, 1862, William Sydney Porter was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He spent his childhood with his grandmother in Greensboro. At the age of three Williams mother, Mary Jane Porter, died. After she died Williams father occupied his time with drinking, and left William to be cared for by his grandmother. While growing up William received very little formal education. For a couple of years he attended the school of his aunt Lina. During this …showed first 75 words of 524 total…

…showed last 75 words of 524 total…Ohio penitentiary he had written dozens of short stories, he began going by his pen name O. Henry to conceal his true identity. He then moved to New York City with his daughter and in 1907 married Sara Lindsay. By 1910, he had already written and published over three hundred stories. (lsjunction.com/people/porter.htm) In 1910 at the age of forty-eight William Sydney Porter died from tuberculosis, the same disease that killed his first wife. (Winborn)