Katherine L. Melekov
Katherine L. Melekov (Lorentz)

May 23, 1885November 21, 1912 (27 years old)
Hometown: Vancouver, BC
May 23, 1885November 21, 1912
(27 years old) | Vancouver, BC

Life Story

Kathrina Lorentz was born in New York City in 1885. She met Nathan Melekov and they were married in Vancouver in 1910. They had a stillborn baby boy in 1911 and tragically the following year, Kathrina died at the age of 27.

Both she and her baby are buried here at Mountain View.

Very little information has been recorded about Nathan, but we do know that he had a brother name Leon, who made a name for himself in Vancouver in the real estate industry. Leon arrived in Vancouver around 1902 from Russia with his wife Mary. He had many business interests, which included being VP of the BC Refining Company Ltd., and head of a consortium proposing to create the BC Steel Corporation, which in the end did not materialize.

He was involved with the building of the St. Regis Hotel in Vancouver at Dunsmuir and Seymour, in July 1912, which still exists to this day.

He made frequent trips to the US and by 1920 he was living and working in Los Angeles. His brother Nathan moved with him and through the years, Leon again made a name for himself, but this time not in a good way. He was involved in many lawsuits, charges of embezzlement, but found not guilty. He wrote a book in 1953; about the petroleum industry titled “The Greatest Fraud Ever Perpetrated in America.” He died in 1963 in Los Angeles.