Second of two parts

UNC alumnus James Kern "Kay" Kyser, one of the most successful band leaders in the pre-World War II jazz band era, decided to retire in 1945 and devote the rest of his life to public service. His band's contractual obligations, however, kept him in California for three years and in New York for two more.

Kyser was especially busy. He and his wife, Georgia, became the parents of daughters Kimberly (1946) and Carroll (1948). Besides doing his regularly scheduled band programs over radio, Kay got his baptism in large-scale public service in a pair of medical programs in southern California and North Carolina.

The goal of the California program was to raise enough money to increase the size and services of St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, the only hospital serving the Hollywood movie community. Kay showed remarkable leadership ability in marshalling and blending the star power of Hollywood in gala programs that brought in the needed funds.

The most imaginative event had a circus theme, intermingling Barnum and Bailey personnel with Hollywood headliners, and netted $1 million.

The North Carolina program was larger in scope and complexity. Wartime medical statistics showed North Carolina had the highest percentage of men rejected for military duty because of poor health among all the states. The state also ranked near the bottom in the number of doctors and hospital beds per capita and near the top in infant deaths.

A North Carolina medical commission recommended a remedial crash program, known as the Good Health Plan, that called for the construction of new hospitals and clinics, upgrading existing ones, expansion of UNC's two-year medical training program into a full-fledged four-year medical school and construction of a large teaching hospital in Chapel Hill.

To put pressure on the 1947 state legislature to pass and finance the plan, a statewide drive to enlist public support was launched under the leadership of UNC medical school dean Walter Reece Berryhill. Kay proved to be a key participant in the drive; he designed a successful publicity program that helped get legislative approval. Working from his California office, he plunged into action with customary energy and effectiveness, using tactics adopted in the California hospital program.

He had two top Hollywood songwriters, Sammy Cahn and Julie Styne, write a North Carolina campaign song, "It's All up to You," and Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore recorded it. It was played repeatedly for months on North Carolina radio stations. A selected group of radio and movie stars also promoted the health plan on special radio programs at Christmas and New Year's.

Free of the successful health campaigns, Kay and Georgia took their first postwar trip to Europe, leaving their two children with Georgia's mother in California. After returning, Kay signed a two-year TV contract and moved the family to New York.

The death of Kay's mother in Rocky Mount at age 86 in the spring of 1950 left Kay in possession of the historic Chapel Hill house at 504 E. Franklin St. Built in about 1814 by a grandson of William Hooper (a North Carolina signer of the Declaration of Independence), it had been owned and occupied by Kay's uncle, UNC School of Pharmacy dean Vernon Howell, from the late 1890s until his death in 1931.

The Kysers left New York during the first week of January 1951 for permanent residence in Chapel Hill but temporarily stayed in Rocky Mount while workmen restored the old house's time-worn interior, installed modern conveniences and reworked the landscaping.

Both Kay and Georgia quickly fit into small-town life, happy to be free of the pressures and fast pace of their glamorous recent past. Kay's love for UNC soon had him involved with Billy Carmichael, former New York stock broker-turned-UNC-comptroller, in laying the foundation of the statewide WUNC TV system when public TV was still in its infancy. Informed that the Ford Foundation was creating a small number of educational TV channels, Kay went to its headquarters and with his commercial TV credentials secured one of the remaining channels for UNC.

Kay used his contacts at NBC to secure free equipment and technical help to start the station. A crew of Hollywood writers, cameramen and other technicians that he brought to Chapel Hill wrote and produced quality programs that got WUNC-TV off to a great start. This provided a basis for the creation by UNC of a department of radio, television and motion pictures (RTVMP).

By the 1960s, Kay's gradual search for spiritual belief led to his active affiliation with Christian Science. After serving full-time in its healing ministry, he became an accredited teacher. From 1975 he served the mother church in Boston for five years as head of its film and broadcast division. Then he became a lecturer, delivering as many as 50 lectures a year in most states and England for three years, accompanied by Georgia. Ill health finally slowed his pace, and he died of a stroke in 1985 at age 80.

Georgia's first 31 years in Chapel Hill were dominated by the time demands of parenthood and the busy involvements of her husband. A third daughter, Amanda, was born in 1952. The sudden death of Carroll in 1993 caused deep family sadness.

When the children were little, Georgia explored various art forms in campus art studios as time permitted. In the 1960s she embarked on a UNC undergraduate degree in studio art that was completed in 1970 after 17 years of part-time study. Long a community activist, she has channeled much of her energy into the programs of the Chapel Hill Preservation Society, which she and friend Ida Friday, combined with a group of supporters, established in 1972.