When Karl Malone gave his Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech in August, his former Louisiana high school teacher beamed with pride.
Kay Brewer, beloved English and speech teacher and longtime Columbus resident, died Thursday at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford. She was 73.
Before teaching Malone, Kay Brewer taught for many years at her alma mater, Lee High School in Columbus.
Kay Brewer, who was born in Columbus July 14, 1937, to her late parents, Thomas and Rosa Katherine Gunter, moved after living in the city 33 years, said Brett Brewer, one of her two sons.
Even 40 years later, she still thought of the city as her home, he said.
“We”ve had this tremendous outpouring of support and phone calls and well wishes from every town we”ve been in, but especially Columbus,” he said.
After she graduated from the Mississippi University for Women with a master”s degree in English, Kay Brewer briefly pursued a career as an actress.
She performed with the Summer Stock theater company in Colorado Springs, Colo., along with Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman.
After that, she gave up acting to concentrate on parenting with her husband of 51 years, former Ole Miss head football coach Billy Brewer.
“She was always involved with my father”s career,” Brett Brewer said. “She was the wife of a high-profile coach and she was a high profile coach”s wife.”
Kay Brewer was honored by the Memphis chapter of the Football Hall of Fame for her years of dedication as a college football coach”s wife.
“She made a lot of sacrifices,” her son said.
Even though she gave up acting, Kay Brewer — who taught at the high school and collegiate level — became deeply involved in several school theatrical productions over the years.
A longtime member of the Oxford United Methodist Church, as well as the First United Methodist Church of Columbus, Kay Brewer immersed herself in charities.
She served in the Junior Auxiliary in Columbus, as well as in Hammond and Ruston, La., and in Oxford.
Her hobbies included bridge, gardening and football. She loved to travel and spend time with friends and family.
Kay Brewer is survived by her husband, who now lives in Oxford; her two sons, Brett Brewer of Memphis, Tenn., and Gunter Brewer of Stillwater, Okla.; her brother, Henry Tom Gunter of Reno, Nev.; and her five grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Palmer Home in Columbus.
Her memorial service will be Monday at 11 a.m. at Gunter & Peel Funeral Home in Columbus following visitation at 10 a.m. Gunter & Peel Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
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