A friend of Norman's Jacobson House, Mary Kay Hall passed away recently in Turlock, Calif., at the age of 92. On January 10th she had completed a life of service as a mother, volunteer and supporter of many civic, social, educational and humanitarian groups in her own communities, as well as two art centers in Norman.
Although she lived all her life outside of Oklahoma, she was no stranger to the state. While visiting her daughter Carol Whitney and her family in Norman, she naturally became involved in Carol's interests and enthusiastically contributed her time and money to support the fledgling organizations Whitney spearheaded over the years.
First she threw her support behind a community arts enterprise for Norman, the Firehouse Art Center, co-founded by Whitney and two other potters almost forty years ago. Then in 1986 she contributed the founding donation making it possible to establish the Jacobson Foundation as the entity focused on preserving Native American art history in the home of Oscar Jacobson, who had played an intrinsic role in that renaissance of Indian art.
From the inception of the Foundation's mission to manage the historic Jacobson House as a Native Art Center, Kay Hall joined in its support and survival by volunteering not only her money, but her time whenever she visited Norman. She used to say, "We even scrubbed the floors, didn't we."
It was on a blustery and snowy night in late 1986 that her daughter Carol, acting as the founding director, recruited her mother to pitch in the first $500 donation, followed by Barry Switzer's $100 pump primer. Switzer had arrived at the Firehouse Art Center (where the first Jacobson Foundation fund raiser was being held) on crutches fresh from the football field and delivered a ten minute talk from memory about the outstanding Native American athletes he knew and admired. This was the public inauguration of a movement to save the Jacobson House from becoming a parking lot, a successful birth now entering its twenty-second year of life.
During those years, Kay Hall, donated to Foundation-supported cultural programs like Wings of the Southern Plains for young native runners, Living Tradition showcasing Indian artists and craftsmen, and Horse Power celebrating the wealth of Native American culture attracting supporters from both inside and outside the native community. She became a Jacobson 5000 member as well as her initial Jacobson 500 membership.
With her passing it has been learned that she has left the Jacobson Foundation, Native Arts Center a monetary gift which she hoped will stimulate other contributions for the restoration of the historic Jacobson House, as a living symbol, the place of "coming together" of Indian and non-Indian people in mutual respect through the arts.
Survivors include her daughters, Jeri Ahart of Boerne, Texas, Carol Whitney of Gracemont, Okla., Kathi Weeden of Junction City, Colo., and Tricia Curnow of Turlock, Calif.; grandchildren include Melissa Whitney of Napa, Calif., Steve Whitney of Mukai-machi, Japan, Eve Whitney of Oktaha, Alan Whitney of Houston, and John Whitney of Norman; as well as nine other grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
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Mary Kay Hall was a friend of Jacobson House
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