The Time Has Come
Kay Vanston
A Local Icon
Speaks Out
Kay Vanston was raised in a low-income family.
Her father was a factory worker and he worked hard to put bread on the table. Kay’s maiden name is Doutre and she was born
on December 7th, 1939
She learned quickly about the value of
hard work and perseverance. Kay was one of five girls in the family and she was
raised mostly on the Southside of Saginaw. She attended Washington Elementary
school, Webber school, and then Saginaw High School. She and her classmates
were the first class to graduate from Saginaw High School in 1957. At this
point in her life she had a distinct presence, an awareness of her own
experiences and a quality of being present and open. She could be present
without judgment and fear. It gave her the emotional freedom to appreciate all
and to love. This is an exclusively social period for Kay or anyone who can form attachments that involve
being with the other. The embrace of her paradoxes included a struggle with
body and soul versus human and divine. It is not an easy dichotomy to
reconcile.
Kay remembers the good times as well as
the bad. She had a clear vision about her life and came to understand that her
life is no longer the sum of other’s prescriptions. Yet, she is sentimental and
to this day she still wears her class ring. Kay recalls, “Those were excellent
schools and we had wonderful educators. I absolutely loved school. I can not
think of a day when I didn’t like school. I wasn’t shy, but I was really into
studying and my mother and father were both very strict. I didn’t have much of
a social life when I was young I had a lot of great experiences with sports. I
went to places where no one imagined a woman would be a part of.” Her
developmental task as a young adult included love, sex, marriage, and career; To be close yet to be free. Kay also had a
deep interest in moral choices and it shone brightly in her career in
television.
At around this time, Kay was doing stock
car races as the starter/flag person. She was the first woman starter in stock
car history. She would open the race up with a clarion call “show your
pictures”. “She was dressed in a black and white shirt and white pants. Jack
Goodwin and Alan Stockton were the owners of Raceland Speedway and they hired
Kay to be the starter for the season. The race track was located between Tawas
and Oscoda off Old US23 (Wilbur Road). Kay
was unique in the state if not the United States as the only woman track
official. At the time, Kay was a mother of six children and had been active in
racing for more than eight years. She
picked out an all-girl staff to keep things going when the local track begins
the season. Kay Recalls, “I didn’t think anyone at the races knew I was a girl
for a long time because I wore a baseball cap. I was able to go around the race
track with Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough. The cars were a lot of excitement.”
Kay was involved with the stock car
racing circuit in Raceland in Oscoda. It was a quarter mile dirt track like the
one in Flat Rock. It was very loud and very dirty. The staff was great to me. I
ran a good track, giving a yellow flag, red flag etc. It was my track!
Within one or two years at the track,
Ms. Wyman hoped to get into driving and gain credibility. She was adamant, “I don’t
want any of that powder stuff either, I want to race superstocks!”Kay’s
relationship with the drivers at the track had been one of mutual respect.
“I just didn’t want to be hired as a sex
symbol or to be judged differently because I am a female. Maybe it’s because
they feel they can’t punch me but I’ve received complete cooperation every race
I’ve worked.”
Kay took on the role of flag person
without any hesitation. She understood that the flag person’s duties were
varied and that her decisions controlled the choices she made. Kay would start
the race, decide when to throw the caution flag and when to black flag
(disqualify) someone from the race either because of poor driving or because of
a malfunction of the car. It was another spectacular.
At the time Kay’s full time job was
advertising manager for Markey-Eliot, Planned Business Interiors and Georgetown
Manor. Kay served as the ad manager for all three firms for four years and had
been doing weather for seven years. Her energy was incredible. In 1975 she was
named the Channel 25 Sports Director. It was a bold move but it paid off as the
ratings hit the roof. There were also some pretty tough times with the good old
boys would not give her access to certain events. She was told she could not sit
ringside with the rest of the “boys” in the press corps. The Michigan State
Boxing Commission rules would not allow women ringside. It was truly an archaic
rule. Kay did not make a fuss about it, only to comment to her peers that she
couldn’t understand why she was different than anybody else. Sports writer Jim
Buckley championed her cause. He understood very well that other sportswriters
had cracked the locker room barrier and time proved that Kay was a natural and
her day would come. She became a pioneer in women’s sports broadcasting despite
the double standards. She broke the barriers and spoke frankly about women’s
rights and the ongoing liberation between the sexes.
Don Steele was the principal of Nelle
Haley when Kay’s children were in school. He had a great career throughout his
life. He helped introduce Kay to John Bradshaw, a motivational speaker and at
this point in her life she devoted herself fully to that and the real estate
people.
“II
wasn’t there eight hours a day though. I worked 6 o’clock to 11 o’clock at
night. I auditioned for a role with Weather girl’s news and there was nothing
to prepare for. I would call-in and say, “Hey, what’s it gonna do tomorrow?” So I put on the mini-skirt and stood up and smiled
for the camera. She was popular with many but not all the viewers and Kay was
painfully aware of all this. She had a deep interest in moral choices and she
could harness logic for behavior that is irrational. It was a way for Kay to
develop her career without anger. She continued to work at Channel 57 as well
as working gigs with WKNX and Bob Dyer. Kay recalls, “The Yankee store
sponsored me forever. They furnished all of my clothing. I think that was
really good for them for that day and time and I got to keep all the clothes. I believe I was earning $200 a week which was
good money then. I’m talking about the sixties and all I had to do was to look
good and pass it around; I got paid separately for all the advertising that I
did!”
Kay was an anchor at Channel 57 for a few
years and received a lot of fan mail. For two months, Howard Wolff would only
film her from the waist up because people were complaining about the
mini-skirts. The Christian side of our fans was effective in keeping the status
quo – skirts were too short!
“I wasn’t into saying anything off hand.
I really wasn’t thinking about saying much of anything. I was busy making money
and raising kids; that’s when I married Paul Vanston. He had two kids, so we
had a total of six children that were less than eight years of age when we got
married, and I worked two jobs. In a bizarre way, we didn’t come from a family
that had money! That’s just how it is. Paul played music and worked. He was a
system analyst for General Motors.
I really loved the creative end of my career.
I loved taking pictures and the way I thought about advertising would make
people stop and pay attention. A whole room of furniture standing in a box car
in a junk yard demolished; I set up a whole room of furniture and I’d be
dressed to the T. Of all of my ads you wouldn’t be expecting to see a furniture
ad. I won the biggest award for my work
about a dining room chair and four buckle galoshes on all four legs. The caption stated, “Don’t wait for the Spring
season, Our prices are low Now!” It was just an isolated chair!
As far as people I’ve met, Gordie Howe
is one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met – ever. He’s just a
wonderful man. I recall the different people that have come through my life
like Dick Wagner and Don Steele. I could go on and on about people I’ve met. I
picked up Sonny and Cher at the airport. They came into Saginaw. I was at the
radio station. They were just different. They had their own language. Glen
Campbell was soft spoken and very religious. Jim Branster was a mountain of a
man. I did the radio for WKNX. He was a
sweet kid and he loved sports. We would listen to the Lions when they were on
the radio. We also attended the U of M football games. At the time, I was 34
and he was a robust guy. He picked me up and held me up and filmed the entire game.
It was a U of M game.
Mark Fidrych was one of my favorite
interviews. I’ll never forget it as long as I live. He said the “F” word every
two words or so and I said, “Mark, this is going to be on television”. He said,
“Ok”, and then went on to say “f” and “I had that effin Ball”etc. I interviewed
Charlie Sanders and Gordie Howe. They were good people. Once Barry Sanders was
in town, I wasn’t on television at the time but Mark helped arrange 20 minutes
of pictures and an interview with Barry Sanders for my daughter Beth. He was so
kind; Good times!
Kay is a confirmed music lover and In
the mid-sixties, She got tickets for the Beatles of Olympia. She took her 14-year-old
sister. It was a gift of a lifetime and it was the first time the Beatles played
in Detroit. Kay was thrilled, “I had second row seats and I’ll never forget it
as long as I live. I loved the Beatles. When I tell people I went to the first
Beatles concert in Detroit and that they were one of the greatest bands ever. Kay acknowledged that there are a lot of great
artists that performed here in Saginaw.
“I
loved the harmonies of the Four Freshmen – I still have a poster! That was at
the old Saginaw Auditorium. Paul Vanston was playing his jazz stuff. Before
Four Freshmen came on with Joe Fryer opening – they all put on shaggy wigs and
started playing those Beatle songs. That was just when the Beatles were coming
out and before they became a phenomenon and people were making fun of them. They
didn’t realize what brilliant musicians the Beatles were. Paul travelled with
them for awhile. They were one of the greatest groups ever and I am a total
Beatles fan. The musicians were up there and they played their hearts out. Paul
would play a Treasure Island and everybody there was just getting drunk, not
paying attention to the music.”
Whites Bar was also part of the story. Kay remembers when her dad drank beer and mom
would call White’s Bar a Beer Garden. “If he stayed too long mom would say to
us, “Go get your dad”. We lived on Morgan Street. I and my three older sisters
would walk over to get my dad and bring him back home from White’s.”
Kay never thought of herself as a pretty
girl. “It was interesting to me when I was in school that I never ever thought
of myself as attractive. I just wanted to be smart. Being smart was more
important to me. No one was ever unkind or pushy to me. It just came out now –
my parents were very strict and I was not allowed to do anything, but they
supported my activities. I was not allowed to go anywhere – not to any dances,
though I did get to attend the prom in the 9th grade and later I was
crowned Miss Anderson pool. Perhaps it
was kay’s early learning about relationships within the family that helped her
sense of security in her adult life. Kay is modest yet confident. “I’ve had no
problems of any kind with anybody. In my
adult life, especially with this last election with all the groping and blah,
blah stuff with Trump and hitting on women; it happens all the time. I can’t
even tell you how many times I’ve swatted someone’s hand away. I didn’t go on
to report it but that is part of an ingrained sexism. That is what happens if
you are a woman and you’re the only woman that’s with hundreds of men. You’re
going to get that kind of thing. It went on a lot and it help keep me on my
guard.. No one attacked me or raped me, it was just the old hitting on you
stuff and trying to give you a big fat kiss with big wet fat faces. It was part
of the game. I never had a drink until I was 42. I didn’t drink in High school.
I wasn’t a goody-goody, I just didn’t like it.”
After
her work in television, Kay spent her next 37 years in Real Estate and she sold
seven million dollars in commission. Like always, Kay learned her craft through
hard work and a winning personality. She would never sell deficient real
estate. She won plenty of commissions during her career. She was confident as a
seller and she always negotiated with the buyer. “It made me happy that there
was a lot of work that went into the sale and it gave me a lot of immense
pleasure.”
Kay was the Dodge Girl and she did the printed
advertisements for Saginaw Dodge. She was the queen of airbrushed ads. “I also
got to know Bob Dyer, he was a mentor, a good man. He was extremely intelligent
and he always encouraged me. He knew that sometimes it got rough; things that I
had to say or do or go out on. He was really the reason I could sustain the
pressure. My family was always primary.” Kay recalled lamenting that she was
not able to balance income with financial stability. “I gave it all away
because somebody needed it; they needed it more than I did.” Kay charted a path in a male dominated
industry and came back out with her head held high. The roar she experienced
was the other side of silence wherein the good old boy network was shut off
from awareness until pioneers like Kay Vanston began to jump into uncharted
waters. At this point in her journey, Kay and other Zen architects know that we
can get along better and love better because we don’t try to convert others. She
has multi-perspective narratives and an appreciation for deeper relationships
and appreciation of a history that looks beyond one’s own life. She realizes
that one can love in many different ways and she can sense that art, music,
sports and love are all part of the same thing. Kay Vanston is her own inner
witness and it is felt as love and serenity
The Peace Train is calling.
