O. Henry O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. His stories are known for their surprise endings. William Sidney Porter was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898. His parents were Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter (1825–88), a physician, and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter (1833–65). William's parents had married on April 20, 1858. When William was three, his mother died after birthing her third child, and he and his
William W. Porter William W. Porter William Wagener Porter (May 5, 1856 - November 16, 1928) was an American attorney and legal author. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in the class of 1875 and admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1877. He served as associate justice of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania from 1897 to 1903. Porter was instrumental in founding the Society of the Descendants of the Schwenkfeldian Exiles, and belonged to the Society of the Cincinnati, the Sons of the Revolution, the Merion Cricket Club, and the Presbyterian Social Union. He served as vice president of the