Kay Linden

Erma McLendon, better known by her professional name, Kay Linden, was the second child born to Theodore and Cleyone (Smitherman) McLendon. (Her sister LaVera died of pneumonia while in in her twenties.) Born in Dublin, GA, Kay was raised in Arizona for most of her early years, schooled in California and received a degree from Columbia University in New York.

Kay became the nation's first professional African American nude model, did a stint as a dancer with Harlem's Cotton Club dancers, and was a successful entrepreneur on Madison Avenue and 6lst Street in New York. She gained world-wide recognition as a haute couture creator of "one-of-a kind" garments. Her clients included Dorothy Kilgallon and Arlene Frances of the television show, "What's My Line", as well as a list of other celebrities of note.

Kay was very social; she befriended many who faced life challenges, sharing her resources (financial, food and rooming) as needed. Her close friends could always count on monthly games of penny poker gathering around a 4 piece gaming table with matching chairs, trimmed with 24 karate gold, she purchased during a trip to Italy. Not necessarily vain, she was conscious of her appearance. Kay was always fashionably dressed, no old,worn housecoats for her), with her black hair styled (Kay said she wasn't born with gray hair and didn't plan to leave this earth with it), makeup carefully applied (red lipstick was her favorite), and skin looking as supple as a young woman.

The attention and loving care provided by her live-in Aide, Eleanor Nsiah, loving friends at Atria Senior Living facility in Rye Brook, NY,and her cousin, Renee Du Jean, gave value to her late years and declining months of life.

Kay's relatives, residents in over 30 United States, includes two living first cousins: 94 year old McKinley of Durham, N.C. and 92 year old, Jiles Smitherman of New York. She has more than 30 living, second generation cousins who represent the families of Fuqua, Daniel, McLendon, Smitherman, Johnson, Hall, Goldsberry, LaFate, Williams, Goler, Santos, Stanley, Thomas and Du Jean, to mention just a few.

“Two tired eyes are sleeping, two willing hands are still. For one who suffered far too much is resting in God's will. You never said goodbye to us, perhaps its just as well, we never could have said goodbye to one we loved so well.”