Dorothy Day, a woman who many people today believe to be a prototypical saint for twentieth-century society, was born on November 8, 1897, in Brooklyn, the eldest daughter of John Day, a roving newspaper sportswriter and his wife, Grace. Because of the nature of her father's work, the Day family moved often during Dorothy's youth. In 1906, the Days were living in Berkeley, California, when the great earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed a large portion of the city of San Francisco across the bay. The disaster destroyed the plant of the Morning Telegraph, necessitating John Day and his family to move again. They settled in Chicago where John rented a drab six-room flat above a tavern on the south side. When he obtained a permanent position with the Chicago Inter-Ocean, his family moved t…