John Walcott Kay

After graduating from medical school, Kay moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to open up a medical practice.^[2] In 1921, he co-founded Community Hospital, which was the city's first hospital to exclusively serve African-American residents, alongside A. J. Wilson, Foster Burnett, Willie Blount, and Boyd Paul.^[2][3]

While a student at Shaw University, Kay met Willie Virginia Otey.^[4] They married in 1915.^[5] They had seven children, two of which died in infancy.^[2] One of his daughters, June, was a prominent civil rights activist. He was the grandfather of North Carolina State Auditor Ralph Campbell Jr. and Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.^[1] Kay had a large Neoclassical house built in Wilmington, where the family lived until his death.^[2]

He died on March 6, 1927, following an emergency surgery for a ruptured abdominal hernia, and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Raleigh.^[1][2] His widow and children moved to Raleigh upon his death.^[2]