Kitty Cone

Early life Curtis Seldon Cone (Kitty) was born on April 7, 1944, in Champaign, Illinois. Their family moved to Florida once her father returned from World War II. She was successful in academics and very popular, but was expelled after one semester. Cone had various rules imposed only on her, and her failure to follow some of them led to her expulsion. After an ultimatum and deadline, demonstrations took place in ten U.S. cities on April 5, 1977, including the beginning of the 504 Sit-in at the San Francisco Office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This sit-in, led by Judith Heumann and Cone, In 1990 she began working for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)'s lawyer referral service, and in 1993 she became its development director.

Personal life Cone was unable to marry her partner, Kathy Martinez, due to legal restrictions on gay marriage. In 1981, she moved to Mexico with Martinez and adopted her son Jorge from Mexico. She was an alcoholic and stopped drinking in the 1970s.

Death Cone died on March 21, 2015, of pancreatic cancer in Berkeley, California, two weeks shy of her 71st birthday.