(October 16, 1943 - 1991) (4 children) He married Katinka Loeser in 1943. They had 4 children named Jan, Peter, Emily and Derek. Peter De Vries met his future wife, poet and author Katinka Loeser, in 1943 when she won an award from Poetry magazine. The couple moved to Westport, Connecticut in 1948. They were the parents of four children: sons Derek and Jon, daughters Jan and Emily. Emily died in 1960 at age ten after a two-year fight with leukemia. This experience provided the inspiration for his 1961 work, The Blood of the Lamb. His son Jon is an actor who has appeared in movies such as American Gangster; Sarah, Plain and Tall; and Skylark; as well as episodic television in shows like Blue Bloods, Boardwalk Empire, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. His daughter Jan, an author, editor and psychic counselor whose interests and activities ranged from homeopathic medicine to shamanism, the occult and Native American lore, died in 1997 at age 52, of cancer. Katinka De Vries died in 1991. Peter De Vries died at age 83 on September 28, 1993 in a Norwalk, Connecticut hospital. He, his wife, and daughter are buried in Willowbrook Cemetery, Westport, Conn.