Mark Twain's Cousin Dies
Miss Xantippe Saunders, 85, for many years one of the leading artists of this city, died at 10:45 o'clock last Tuesday morning at her home, 3128 Western Parkway [Louisville]. Miss Saunders first began her serious work as an artist under professor Pering, of Louisville, continuing her studies in New York under Professor Eaton and Professor Wilmorth. Later she was associated with Carnelia [Cornelia] Pering, of this city, for over twenty-five years, the art school here being known as Pering & Saunders. She was a cousin of the late Mark Twain and...was known particularly as a portrait painter. After the funeral services the interment was in Cave Hill Cemetery [Louisville].

Miss Saunders was a native of Adair County, her mother being a Miss Hancock, and there are yet many of her relatives living in the surroundings of Columbia. She was a very popular young woman, and especially was she the favorite of the young people of this community...

As an artist, Miss Saunders had but few equals. After receiving advantages in New York, she spent a year or two abroad.

A specimen of her work can be seen on the tomb of Mrs. Prudie Lyon, the first wife of Mr. W.R. Lyon, in the Columbia Cemetery. It is the deceased's picture and it is burned in the stone, the weather having no effect upon it.

The passing of this distinguished character removes from Kentucky one of her most distinguished women, one whose memory will linger for ages. Judge Junius Hancock of this place was a cousin of the deceased. --Adair County News, 12 December 1922--The first two paragraphs were reprinted from the Louisville Herald; the remainder is original to the News.

"I have just read in the News of the death of Miss Tip Saunders. This brings to mind many reflections. In 1886, when I moved to Louisville, to become pastor of the Portland Avenue Christian Church, Miss "Tip" as she was always called, was the treasurer of that church, and remained so for many years afterward. Her father died about the time I moved there, in November, and his funeral was the first one I ever assisted in conducting, for this was my first pastorate.

"She was a noble Christian woman, and was always held in the highest esteem by all who knew her, rich and poor, great and small. She was never married, and could get off more fun at the expense of 'old maids' than any woman I ever saw. She was brainy, witty and sweet spirited. And now after the lapse of all these years, in loving memory I want to lay a wreath upon her grave..." --Adair County News, 26 December 1922; excerpted from a long letter from Rev. Marion "M.F." Harmon, a native of Adair County then living in Mississippi.