Posted on Sunday, December 13, 2020
“For the proud and brave of my place – LaGrange College.” Terry Kay 2016
Best-selling author and LaGrange College alum Terry Kay ’59, H ’99 passed away Saturday after a brief battle with cancer. He was 82.
Born in Royston, Georgia, in 1938, he attended Royston High School, where he played quarterback on the football team. He married his childhood sweetheart, Tommie Duncan, in 1959.
That same year, Kay graduated from LaGrange with a social science degree. He also discovered a love for theater and took several theater courses. He was a passionate supporter of the college, returning to campus several times as a speaker.
In 1996, he was named to the Wall of Outstanding Alumni. This recognition is for alumni who have distinguished themselves in their chosen professions and in their communities. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, and he presented the commencement address in 2003.
After college, Kay worked as a columnist for the DeKalb-Decatur News, sportswriter and film and theater critic for the Atlanta Journal, creative director of Pace Corp., account executive of the public relations firm Walburn & Associates and public information manager and external affairs representative for Oglethorpe Power Corp.
His career as a novelist began in 1976 with the publication of “The Year the Lights Came on.”
He would go on to write 18 books, including a collection of essays and two children’s books. His writings covered all genres. Most of his novels were set in the rural South and were filled with appreciation and compassion for the region.
Kay received the Southeastern Library Association Outstanding Author of the Year Award in 1991 for “To Dance with the White Dog” which was nominated two times for the American Booksellers Association's Book of the Year. Kay also won an Emmy in 1990 for his original teleplay “Run Down the Rabbit.”
In 2006 he was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. The following year, Kay received the Stanley W. Lindberg Award, sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book. He received a Governor's Award in the Humanities in 2009, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Writers Association in 2011.
Category: Community
Keywords: alum, author
