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
Whitworth Porter Annie Shirley da Costa, by whom he had two children: Catherine, who married Captain Crosse; and Reginald da Costa, a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers who died in accident in 1882. Porter erected a reredos at St. Michael's Church, York Town, to the memory of Reginald. Attribution Whitworth Porter Whitworth Porter (1827–1892) was an English Major General of the Royal Engineers, known also as a historical writer. The second son of Henry Porter, of Winslade House, South Devon, he was born at Winslade, near Exeter, on 25 September 1827; his mother was Rose Aylmer, youngest daughter of Sir Henry Russell,