About this project

Kay Kemble (1911-1989) is a character invented for this project. Kay sang on radio commercials as a child and went on to lead Big Bands and swing ensembles in the 30's and 40's. She worked at Scott Air Field as a WAAC enlistee and a civilian. She produced war bond rallies, and her all-female band promoted a popular shampoo brand. In the 80's there was renewed interest in Kay's musical career.

Kay informally adopted the orphaned niece and nephew of her partner Wilmetta "Teeny" Stockton, and in the early 70's the family moved from St. Louis to New Orleans. After Kay and Teeny's deaths, family members remained in New Orleans until displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In 2014, I arranged to archive, organize, and restore Kay's memorabilia. Most items were damaged due to age, hurried packing , and lack of funds for formal archiving.

I've "become" Kay in reproduction radio broadcasts, and created artifacts to represent damaged or destroyed items in the collection.



Sunday, July 19, 2020

Newspapers of the 1940s

Now that daily newspapers, printed on newsprint, are dying off, it's hard to remember how many papers there used to be, often three or four in a large city. I've been researching newspapers published in St. Louis, as they would have been where Kay got her news when she wasn't traveling. 

 Today I was reading some 1940s history and came across a mention of PM, a liberal newspaper published in New York using funds from Marshall Field. I'd never heard of it. This evaporating culture is some of why I do this project; things which were once known to thousands or tens of thousands of people just vanish. 
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