Journalist was ‘tough as nails’ though nurtured the far-reaching round of friends – austin american

By Chuck Lindell

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 6:55 p.m. Wednesday,  Feb. 16,  2011

Published: 6:53 p.m. Wednesday,  Feb. 16,  2011

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By Chuck Lindell

American-Statesman staff

Diminutive usually in distance, Michele Kay was an ubiquitous publisher who staid in to Austin as well as the pages of this journal with the no-nonsense power which couldn’t censor the soothing heart underneath.

Kay — who died during her Austin home Wednesday sunrise, roughly dual years after being diagnosed with the brain growth — cut the far-reaching trail by Austin as the American-Statesman’s commercial operation editor from 1988-91, followed by stints as an paper bard, Washington match, state Capitol contributor as well as commercial operation columnist.

Never fearful to reinvent herself, Kay, 66, additionally dipped the toe in to governing body, warranted the college degrees she regularly craved as well as found accomplishment as the broadcasting professor.

“She was the great contributor — difficult as nails, but fright or preference, ” pronounced Austin domestic expert Bill Miller, who met Kay when she was the commercial operation contributor in Dallas in the 1980s. “She only didn’t put up with BS. She played we straight; she demanded which we fool around her straight.”

Kay suspicion quick, wrote quick as well as spoke unequivocally fast. She disliked distractions, could be bold as well as refused to humour fools.

She additionally done friends simply, changeable in to the slower rigging for the personal conversations she desired — filing divided contribution about birthdays, weddings, births as well as alternative hold up landmarks which she could stop years later.

“She knew so most some-more about the universe than the normal chairman upon the transport, or normal contributor for which make the difference, ” pronounced Bruce Todd, the former Austin mayor as well as longtime friend. “You regularly felt which her story, either it was in your preference or opposite, was the scold story.”

Kay’s list of contacts done her the challenging as well as constant publisher, pronounced Debra Davis, Kay’s former editor as well as the longtime friend.

“She regularly knew what was starting to occur prior to it was starting to occur, as well as it was since she kept up with dozens, hundreds of people in locale, ” pronounced Davis, the Statesman’s state editor. “It wasn’t the distributed arrange of thing. She was unequivocally meddlesome in people’s lives.”

Kay was the 5-foot-tall fireball who hitchhiked opposite India as well as Europe as the teen as well as, as the 17-year-old in 1962, embarked upon the four-decade broadcasting career as the contributor for the Hong Kong Standard.

That same integrity appeared again when unexpected serious headaches suggested the brain growth in her left temporal lobe in Mar 2009. Surgeries, chemotherapy sessions as well as deviation followed.

The past couple of months of seizure increasingly deprived Kay of the capability to speak, so she focused upon her biggest joys: visits with friends as well as time with her father, Robert Schultz, her dual young kids as well as 5 grandchildren.

“She rubbed her seizure similar to she rubbed her hold up — unequivocally dynamic, unequivocally eccentric, ” pronounced Mary Ann Roser, the Statesman contributor as well as friend.

Kay was innate in 1944 in Egypt to the French mom as well as British father. Her family was during once banished in 1956 whilst Egypt battled Britain, France as well as Israel over the Suez Canal. Parliament after done Kay the British theme in interjection for her father’s work ludicrous personal tactful cables to London whilst he worked during the Cairo communications company.

War played an additional successful purpose in Kay’s hold up when she as well as then-husband Keith Kay changed to Vietnam in 1967 in search of jobs. He became the CBS cameraman, as well as Michele Kay worked for airline Pan Am, assisting U.S. servicemen upon rest-and-relaxation transport during the Vietnam War. “Her time in Vietnam left her with kind of the war-correspondent genius, ” Miller said.

After receiving repository jobs in Hong Kong as well as Paris, Kay arrived in Texas in 1981 to spin editor of the Dallas-Fort Worth Commercial operation Journal as well as after the now-defunct Texas Commercial operation Magazine. She changed to Austin in 1988 as well as became the U.S. adult in 1997.

Kay left the Statesman in the late 1990s for the spin during governing body, operative as press cabinet member for John Cornyn’s debate for Texas profession ubiquitous as well as for then-Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

Kay returned to the Statesman as the contributor as well as commercial operation columnist, afterwards over in 2003 for the latest challenge: the magnanimous humanities master’s grade from St. Edward’s University, where she had warranted the bachelor’s grade the year earlier. The degrees led to Kay’s last career as partner broadcasting highbrow as well as propagandize journal confidant during St. Edward’s .

Services have been scheduled for eleven a.m. Saturday during Episcopal Church of the Great Shepherd, 3201 Windsor Road, with the accepting to follow.

clindell@statesman.com, 912-2569