Local figure
Kay Kyser entered UNC in 1923, was a Carolina cheerleader, acted in Carolina Playmaker productions and in 1926 took over leadership of the campus band. After a national career in radio, he retired to Chapel Hill in 1951, helped get WUNC-TV on the air in January 1955, and died in Chapel Hill on July 23, 1985.
Source: UNC Libraries, History on the Hill: The "Ol' Professor" of the "Kollege of Musical Knowledge"
12 indexed works are connected with this person.
Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.
A biography of the bandleader Kay Kyser by Raymond D. Hair and Jürgen Wölfer, published in 2011 by BearManor Media of Albany, Georgia. Kyser was a student at the University of North Carolina, with ties to Chapel Hill and Rocky Mount. Discography on pages 427 to 431, filmography on pages 455 to 465.
Singer and actress Georgia Carroll Kyser, married to Chapel Hill bandleader Kay Kyser, attends a UNC football game at Kenan Stadium in the 1980s. Behind her the Carolina Band plays 'Tar Heels On Hand' in her husband's honor. 35 mm negative by Hugh Morton.
Hugh Morton, bandleader and radio personality Kay Kyser and his wife Georgia Kyser, left to right, greet one another at the 1951 Southern Short Course in Press Photography at UNC-Chapel Hill on 14 April 1951. The date comes from a matching picture printed on 18 April 1951. Photographer unknown; 4 x 5 sheet film negative.
Kay Kyser and Billy Arthur, both former UNC head cheerleaders, trade jokes at Chapel Hill's Southern Short Course in Press Photography in the 1950s while Norman Cordon and Beatrice Cobb watch. Banquet group portrait by an unknown photographer on black-and-white sheet film.
Announcement of two scholarships established in the name of the bandleader Kay Kyser, one in music and one in dramatic art, published at Chapel Hill in 1941 through the Kay Kyser Foundation at the University of North Carolina. An application form for the music award is bound in.
Bandleader Kay Kyser in two portraits, 1920 to 1941, one of them in his UNC cheerleader uniform. From the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
A photographic collection built around the musician Kay Kyser and Georgia Carroll Kyser, about 335 items filling seven linear feet and dating from 1906 to 1985, in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Topics include radio programs, musicians in North Carolina, and views of Chapel Hill and Rocky Mount. Both Kysers appear in the pictures and were university alumni.
Vertical file on the bandleader Kay Kyser, a University of North Carolina alumnus, from the Individuals and Families series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society, box 5. Its contents are sheet music connected with him. Undated.
Kay Kyser and Billy Carmichael in an office, an undated candid photograph from the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
Posed family photograph of the bandleader Kay Kyser and his wife Georgia with their three children, undated. Part of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection, among its portraits of Chapel Hill people.
Charlie 'Choo Choo' Justice kneeling beside the bandleader Kay Kyser, a University of North Carolina alumnus, in a print dated 1940. From the UNC Athletics binder in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
Kay Kyser as a University of North Carolina cheerleader, in a portrait dated 1920. Kyser later became a nationally known bandleader. From the UNC Athletics binder in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection (CHHS.002).
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
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Picture: Kay Kyser, portrait plate, 1944. Public domain. Advertisement in the Billboard 1944 Music Yearbook; via Wikimedia Commons
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