Joe and Kay's Story

Kay Francis Moody was the beautiful girl I saw in 1952 while in our first year at Gallaudet College. She hailed from Alabama School for the Deaf in Talladega, Alabama. She was among the few girls headquartered in House 2 (Hughes House) instead of Fowler Hall, where many female classmates stayed. I did not know Kay Francis very well because of her isolation from her female classmates and friends.

I went for her in the springtime of 1953 when she started mingling with my friends, especially with my close female friends. I fell for her beauty, sweet personality, and broad smiles. She was typically a Southern-Belle shapely dame who loved to wear tight sweaters.

Before Gallaudet College was closed for the summer in 1953, we, the preparatory students, went to Great Falls Park in Maryland to spend our last day together. On that day, Kay Francis was popular with some boys, and I made sure of myself by staying close to her most of the day. I tried to win her fondness for me, and we promised to correspond with each other during the summer.

Kay Francis and I did not see each other during the summer of 1953, but we did keep in touch as promised. It was a long summer as I could not wait to see her again. With a borrowed car, my dad’s 1950 Packard, I arranged to pick her up at the Washington, DC Union Station in the fall of 1953 when she came back for our second year at Gallaudet.

It was long and heart-throbbing for me as I was anxiously awaiting her arrival from Birmingham, Alabama. I had some plans for us to be together for a while before returning to the Gallaudet campus. But, to my great disappointment, she arrived not by herself but with one of her best friends from Southern California. So, to my frustrated emotion, I took them to Gallaudet without finding time for me to be with Kay Francis alone that day.

Nevertheless, I did not give up my dream of winning her heart for myself. We took part in the college activities together, our dates were fabulous, and we then started going steady. We loved to be at the Gallaudet snack bar along with our friends from time to time. And we usually spent our time studying in the evenings at the college library together. Our freshman year was a blissful and romantic year for us. I was very attentive to her charms and her love for me, but we had to be separated when our freshmen year ended. She went back home, and I remained in Washington, DC. Yeah, it was a summer of agony for me as I was like a lost sheep, without my lover, for three months before our sophomore year resumed.

I had some memories of cherished romantic moments with Kay Francis when we were college sweethearts. Before heading back to our dormitories for the night, we would bid each other “good night” by lovingly caressing at our favorite place in Gallaudet Chapel Hall.

We had a great, love-filled sophomore year, and we started discussing our marriage arrangement that year. The Kappa Gamma Fraternity dance event in the springtime of 1955 was a special occasion for us as I presented Kay Francis with an engagement ring, and we got married in the following fall.