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.



Wednesday, October 7, 2020

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

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