CLYDE'S MEMORY OF KAY KENT
I first remember Kay Kent in the 12th grade at HHS when she performed a dance on the
stage for the whole high school. Kay loved to tap dance and was very good at it as well
as being an excellent girls’ basketball player. She was an excellent student
scholastically who had transferred into the Hope School District her Sr. year. She
continued on and finished college and obtained her masters at the University of
Tennessee and taught at East Tennessee State University near Johnson City for many
years.
All our ladies always had such a wonderful time at reunions just laughing and visiting.
I remember Kay coming to the 1993 reunion in a very beautiful, colorful dress. It was
1988 that I remember Pat Bearden being there in her bright pink dress. Kay and Pat
were both guards on the girls' basketball team. Both of them showed their fighting
spirits to the very end.
I became a volunteer Church Builder for Christ in about 1978 in Memphis, Tennessee.
In August of 1991 the Mountain View Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tennessee,
requested our assistance to help them sheet rock their 35,000 square foot new church
building which was the reason I was in Kay's area of Tennessee that year.
I asked the pastor of the Mountain View Baptist Church if by chance he knew Kay Kent
Thornton? The pastor said yes he did. "Everyone in that area knew her because she was
the Miracle Lady for Johnson City.” They had assisted Kay to have a very costly liver
transplant not just once but twice.
To make a long story shorter for everyone, I asked the pastor if by chance he could find
an address and telephone number for me so that I could contact Kay. I later learned he
obtained this from her former husband, an attorney in the area.
Kay was very excited about my being in her home town and we made a dinner date. She
was to show me the town and I drove her out to the church site and gave Kay a tour of
the building. We had a great meal and laughed and cried together as we shared our life
stories since our good old days at HHS.
Kay was very special, had a lot of talent and was a very brave lady to her last breath.
We all were very blessed to have broken bread with her and shared our memories. She
is greatly missed by me and everyone in our special ‘53 class.
Clyde Arnold
March 22, 2006
I first remember Kay Kent in the 12th grade at HHS when she performed a dance on the
stage for the whole high school. Kay loved to tap dance and was very good at it as well
as being an excellent girls’ basketball player. She was an excellent student
scholastically who had transferred into the Hope School District her Sr. year. She
continued on and finished college and obtained her masters at the University of
Tennessee and taught at East Tennessee State University near Johnson City for many
years.
All our ladies always had such a wonderful time at reunions just laughing and visiting.
I remember Kay coming to the 1993 reunion in a very beautiful, colorful dress. It was
1988 that I remember Pat Bearden being there in her bright pink dress. Kay and Pat
were both guards on the girls' basketball team. Both of them showed their fighting
spirits to the very end.
I became a volunteer Church Builder for Christ in about 1978 in Memphis, Tennessee.
In August of 1991 the Mountain View Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tennessee,
requested our assistance to help them sheet rock their 35,000 square foot new church
building which was the reason I was in Kay's area of Tennessee that year.
I asked the pastor of the Mountain View Baptist Church if by chance he knew Kay Kent
Thornton? The pastor said yes he did. "Everyone in that area knew her because she was
the Miracle Lady for Johnson City.” They had assisted Kay to have a very costly liver
transplant not just once but twice.
To make a long story shorter for everyone, I asked the pastor if by chance he could find
an address and telephone number for me so that I could contact Kay. I later learned he
obtained this from her former husband, an attorney in the area.
Kay was very excited about my being in her home town and we made a dinner date. She
was to show me the town and I drove her out to the church site and gave Kay a tour of
the building. We had a great meal and laughed and cried together as we shared our life
stories since our good old days at HHS.
Kay was very special, had a lot of talent and was a very brave lady to her last breath.
We all were very blessed to have broken bread with her and shared our memories. She
is greatly missed by me and everyone in our special ‘53 class.
Clyde Arnold
March 22, 2006