Kathryn L. Widmer [sometimes seen as Kathrine] did not leave much behind musically, but her single rag was certainly one of Notoriety and deserves recognition. She was born in Barton, New York to Swiss immigrant father Rudolf Adolphus Widmer (seen sometimes as Adolphus Rudolf) and her Pennsylvania born mother who she was named after, Kathryn "Caty" Torphy. Her Social Security death record claimed February 21, but the 1900 census cited May as her birth month. Also in the family was William Frances (1873), Cornelia J. (1874), Anna A. (1877), Mamie J. (4/1879) and Agnes A. (10/1885), the only five of twelve children born to the Widmers that survived to adulthood. Rudolf was a professional sign painter for most of his career although he was listed as a tailor in the 1892 New York state census, taken in Ithaca, which may have been an error. He moved the family to New York City by the mid-1890s. This is where Kathryn likely got most of her musical training. For the 1900 census she was listed as a musician in Manhattan, but no further details were available. She was not readily found in Manhattan directories of the time, perhaps because she was still living with her parents.

The next sighting of Miss Widmer was in the 1905 New York census in Manhattan, living with her parents and two of her siblings, listed as a pianist. As of the 1910 enumeration, taken across the Hudson River in Bayonne, New Jersey, she was still living with her parents, as well as three of their grandchildren, likely those of an older sister. This time she was listed as a music clerk, very possibly at one of the locations hosted by Jerome H. Remick if not their main office.

It was with Remick that Kathryn had her single syncopated marvel, Notoriety Rag, published in 1913. Unlike many of the Tin Pan Alley pieces of simple construction that were flooding the market at that time, Notoriety represented a great deal of skill and thought, and actually was fairly progressive in its makeup. It was a good seller and popular enough to find its way onto many piano rolls, and even a fine recording by the Fred Van Eps Trio in 1914 on Victor Records. The next year she composed a piece in the newly popular Maxixe dance genre, Buenos Dias. That was Kathryn's last known publication, although she may have continued to work as a player or arranger over the next few years.

Not all of the pieces were available to finish off the story. However, Kathryn was married around 1917 to Francis "Frank" Hastings. For the 1920 enumeration they were found as boarders in Manhattan, showing Frank to be a vacuum cleaner salesman, possibly door-to-door, and Kathryn as having no apparent occupation. There is a mystery presented in the next verifiable sighting of the couple in 1925, now in Long Island City. Frank was working at what looked to be “floor keeper” in the record, and Kathryn was at least temporarily back into music, employed as a piano player. The surprise was Mary (12/27/1916), their daughter, who at 8 was present for this enumeration, but was missing five years prior, indicating either an adoption or perhaps she had been temporarily residing with a different relative in 1920, with no clear answer found. For the 1930 record the Hastings were residing in Queens, New York, with Frank now enjoying a career as an interior decorator, and Kathryn working as a credit clerk in a department store.

Following the Great Depression, the Hastings were still located in Queens for the 1940 enumeration, with Frank, now 60, continuing his interior decorating career, Kathryn, also 60, having retired from work, and Mary, now 23, employed as a stenographer for a public utility. It appears that Kathryn may never have gone back into the world of music on a professional basis. Frank passed on in 1950 in Queens at around 71. Kathryn survived him more than another two decades, dying in Ossining, New York, near her daughters' residence, at age 92 in late 1972. They are at rest in Yonkers, New York, in a plot shared by her brother William and his wife, and curiously, four members of the O’Brien family, for which no definitive connection was found.