Drummer Viola Smith, born in 1921, has passed away

 A contemporary of Kay's. Kay lived till the late 1980s but Viola stayed with us until October. 2020. 

What does it say about America that there were seven (7) Francis the Talking Mule movies?

The release of "Francis" in 1950 coincided with the start of Kay's growing dissatisfaction with the way popular culture was headed. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_(film) 

Kay and military communication

 Kay fell into situations both as a WAAC member and as a civilian worker at an airfield in which she helped with communications technology. She'd had to learn on the job and quickly in the year when she'd been a high school band director, as managing the school's radio club was part of the job. 

I'm sure she had experience with teletypes, working properly and otherwise. I have only been through about a third of the archival material I have so who knows what will turn up on th topic in the future?

http://taipeisignalarmy.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-model-15-by-teletype-corporation.html

The terrors of traveling by bus in the South of the 1940s

 Kay and Teeny, with a band, toured the South to promote Enchanted Nile Pomade, a hair product marketed to men and women of color. The company couldn't support the cost of a touring bus, so the band traveled in a motley array of second- and third-hand vechicles, which of course occasionally broke down. A few times, one or more members of the band had to take a Greyhound bus to get to the gig while others tended to a disabled vehicle. 

While I don't know if Kay or Teeny were aware of the brutal beating of honorably-dischanrged serviceman Stt. Isaac Woodard, I'm sure they had heard similar tales of punishment meted out to people of color who were perceived to act "above themselves."

https://carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu/isaac-woodard-a-forgotten-story-that-changed-history/