He had a weekly radio show with an audience bigger than the Super Bowl. He received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He led the biggest-selling band in the 1940s.
And he performed more shows for the troops during World War II than Bob Hope did.

But when Clifton Barnes posted Kay Kyser's picture on a Rocky Mount, North Carolina Facebook page, many people wrote that they had never heard of the Rocky Mount native - this despite the fact that Kyser was able to proudly work "Rocky Mount, North Carolina!" into his seven feature films.

Others on the Facebook page lamented how Kyser had been forgotten, not just around the country but right there in his hometown.

Even when his 11 Billboard No. 1 songs were listed, many still didn't have a clue. Sure, some had heard the famous Woody Woodpecker song but they didn't know who performed it.

Well, it was Kay Kyser's big band, who became a national sensation in the late 1930s with the NBC radio show "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge."

Barnes had just assumed that people in Rocky Mount still remembered. Others were disappointed that more hadn't been done to preserve the memory of the city's favorite son - the man that put Rocky Mount on the map.

Barnes, who had helped secure a state historic marker for the North Carolina Bar Association when he worked there, thought that Kyser should have a marker in Rocky Mount at the site of his family home, which had been a well-known landmark before it was bought by the next-door Methodist church and razed.

Having not lived in his native Rocky Mount since the 1980s, Barnes solicited help from those on the "Rocky Mount Way Back When" Facebook page who might still be in the city. Encouraging words of support came from many but no one joined in to help.

Without a group, business or any entity's backing, Barnes took the unusual step of nominating someone for an historic marker as an individual. Barnes contacted the NC Department of Cultural Resources Highway Historical Marker to start the process.

He researched Kyser's life and even spoke to the author of the now out-of-print book titled "Kay Kyser - The Ol' Professor of Swing! America's forgotten Superstar." (As a result of the interest generated by this project, the author is going to reprint the book.) After completing the application and turning it in, the staff liaison for the Highway Historical Marker Advisory Committee wanted more supporting documentation for the committee members to have on hand. Barnes backed up the the points he had made with printed handouts of historic documents and articles, along with pages from books and websites.

The marker was approved unanimously at the first meeting. Dr. Kevin Cherry, the deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and director of the Office of Archives and History, said it was unusual for a marker to be approved unanimously on the first read-through. Dr. Cherry also said that there are more than 200 applications for historic markers per year and only eight to 10 are approved.

Barnes corresponded the good news to the mayor of Rocky Mount, David Combs, who put him in touch with city staff to plan out a ceremony for a marker unveiling. Barnes was hoping for a larger celebration and he lobbied for that during discussions with staff. Barnes envisioned 1) bringing in someone who knew Kyser to speak 2) having a display of Kyser memorabilia 3) showing a Kyser movie and 4) generally having a celebration in his honor - separate and apart from an unveiling ceremony.

During several trips from Cary to Rocky Mount, Barnes heard the city officials talk big about what they had done, could do and would do but it turned out that staff often dropped the ball. Staff said that more people would be exposed to Kyser if they made Kyser the theme of one of their First Friday events, since there was already a built in audience. Barnes agreed and proceeded to help secure a band that would play Kyser songs and proceeded to coordinate with and secure memorabilia from the Kay Kyser Collection at his alma mater, UNC-Chapel Hill.

Barnes went through hundreds of photos to cull down to 30 that could be presented on a wall board that the city said it could and would do. Unfortunately, Rocky Mount staff was busy with another project and would not approve the photos for payment at that time. Barnes not only ended up paying for the photos, but he also paid for DVDs of rare interviews with Kyser. One program had not been seen in years and it had not been transferred to newer technology. Unfortunately, it was ruined - unusable. Barnes went to the original source of the tape - UNC TV, a public television station that Kyser had helped form. They also had not viewed the tape in years and it had begun to deteriorate. While it was damaged, it was able to be saved. The technician told Barnes that it probably would have been lost forever had he not been so hard-headed about getting a copy.

The grand visions of the Rocky Mount staff did deteriorate however. They had planned to show one of Kyser's movies "Carolina Blues" on the outdoor screen at the First Friday event. Unfortunately, they said that one of their movies had been postponed by rain earlier and that they would have to show that one instead. Cars 3 - at a Kay Kyser themed celebration.

In addition, an auditorium that was to be used for a Kay Kyser program was given to a reading club. The city ended up not using the photos Barnes had picked out and they only put together poster boards with fewer photos instead of the nice wall plaques they had promised with the 30 photos. They chose a local swing band but instructed them that they could play anything they wanted, not necessarily Kyser or big band music from the era. Barnes had asked that the local dance group teach swing dancing during the event in a nice dance studio on site at the Imperial Center, where the event was to be held. The staff said they'd make that happen - they didn't.

Barnes went to Chapel Hill several times to pick out memorabilia to display. He ended up choosing about two dozen items to display. While it was unusual for the items to be allowed off site, Barnes was able to secure approval from the UNC Library to do so. He had to personally sign for and vouch for their safety. Unfortunately, the city only wanted a few of them for the Kyser celebration.

With Barnes seeing some of his vision being blurred, he took matters into his own hands. First, he got the local Braswell Library to agree to display the leftover memorabilia, which turned out even better because they committed to showing the items for three months as opposed to a few days. Then, he used photos he had researched to produce a 305-slide PowerPoint slideshow with Kyser music inserted. UNC archives gave Barnes permission to take photos of the pictures he wanted to use for the slideshow. Because of degradation of pictures of pictures and otherwise fading/damage of the originals, Barnes went through and photoshopped each photograph. Braswell library showed the slideshow on a loop for the full three months of the Kyser display. It was also shown during the city event at the Imperial Centre, although that version was edited because city staff disapproved of a few slides for political correctness reasons - one was simply Kyser dressed as a Native American for a production of the famous Lost Colony theater drama and another was Bing Crosby in costume on the set of Road to Singapore.

Next, Barnes contacted the band separately and encouraged them to play Kyser tunes. They ended up playing a few Kyser songs and all big band type music that the Kyser band might have played. He also got them to introduce Kyser's daughters to make a few comments. In addition, he got the city to set up a television in the lobby of the Imperial Centre where they played the movie "Carolina Blues." He also put together a loop of YouTube Kay Kyser videos that the city showed on another television and he provided the restored DVD interviews that were shown on yet another television.

Due to the troubles he had with Rocky Mount staff, Barnes decided to leave them out of the marker dedication ceremony altogether. Instead of using their staff and equipment, and having the ceremony outside, Barnes enlisted the help of the Methodist Church to have the ceremony inside. (Marker dedications outside are usually limited to a few minutes because people have to stand and withstand weather conditions. Barnes wanted a longer dedication worthy of the subject.) The church's annex building stands on the property where Kyser's boyhood home stood. It was the perfect venue for the ceremony, and it was just feet away from the marker placement.

Barnes asked the mayor to proclaim Oct. 5, 2018 as Kay Kyser Day in Rocky Mount, which he did. All the while, Barnes had been coordinating a date and time with Kyser's daughters, who live in Chapel Hill. He wanted to make sure they were there to do the unveiling of the marker. Barnes had been working with the state on the location and timing of putting up the marker, which, once erected, stayed covered until dedication time.

After Barnes met with Wendi Beck, office administrator of First United Methodist Church in Rocky Mount, the church committee agreed to allow the full use of the church annex for free for the dedication ceremony. Beck worked with Barnes on setting up the stage, arranging chairs for the audience and making sure the two large TVs on either side of the stage showed the Kyser slideshow.

Barnes set up a table with a printed program he produced, along with various photos from Kyser's life in Rocky Mount, Kyser sheet music, framed Kyser records and Kyser items he bought on eBay. In addition, Barnes borrowed a large Kyser display that had been used for an event at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill years earlier and placed it on an easel.

In order for ceremony itself to be special, Barnes wanted to get a strong group of speakers. First, he got a commitment from daughter Kimberly Kyser to anchor the speakers with comments about her father, as well as introducing relatives and friends in attendance. Then, he made sure the mayor could attend and talk about the legacy of Kyser and what he means to Rocky Mount, as well as introducing local dignitaries in attendance and announcing the Kay Kyser Day proclamation. He also presented the Kyser daughters with nice commemorative plaques. A representative of the historic marker program always speaks first at these unveilings but Barnes said he was honored that Dr. Kevin Cherry, the head honcho in the department, wanted to attend this ceremony himself. He gave remarks about the marker program in general and this marker in particular.

With Kyser having been born in 1905, there were no contemporaries to invite but Barnes wanted someone who knew him. During the research, Barnes discovered that a man named Henry Gregory was Kyser's best friend in Rocky Mount. He wondered if he had any relatives still alive and went back onto Facebook to ask. A 1957 classmate of Roger Gregory, Henry's son, chimed in but didn't know where Roger was today. After learning that Roger is a doctor, Barnes tracked down a Dr. Roger Gregory in Virginia and left a message on his phone. An enthusiastic Roger Gregory called Barnes back and very much wanted to be a part of the program. He brought some personal items to share along with touching and funny anecdotes, and a couple of friends who used to live in Rocky Mount. Finally, Barnes wanted a professional communicator to be the emcee of the event but he also wanted someone who had some connection to Kyser. During his conversations with the Braswell Library staff, he learned of a DJ who is from North Carolina but lives in Virginia named Ken Heath. He has a weekly radio program where he plays old-time music and his theme song is Kyser's theme song, "Thinking of You." Turns out that he has a lot of knowledge about Kyser's works and collects Kyser memorabilia. He also imitates Kyser, which he did briefly at the dedication ceremony and did in full costume for the full First Friday event.

About 45 people turned out for the marker unveiling - slightly more than the 30 the staff at cultural resources said normally attended such events. The historic marker staff, with Barnes' input, sent out a news release about the event and Barnes personally contacted local media about the dedication and the First Friday event. The local newspaper did have a front-page article in advance of Kay Kyser Day based on the cultural resources release. But Barnes learned that the promised news release of the entire day's events by the city staff was never written or released. So, he wrote his own separate news release at the last second that did encourage a local community TV station to record the event and feature it on a program. Several national music-related websites also announced the new marker. In addition, Barnes was able to track down perhaps the only living person that appeared in his movies - Jean Phelps Veloz, now in her 90s, who danced as a teenager in the movie "Swing Fever." She lives in California so it wasn't realistic to get her to Rocky Mount in person but she did give Barnes a comment. He put together a handout for those in attendance (see link below) and Heath, the emcee, read her statement.

During the marker dedication event, Barnes greeted guests, introduced people to each other and took items that were referenced by the speakers around to the audience members. In addition, he videoed the entire program for posterity.

After the well-received ceremony, everyone moved outside where Dr. Cherry said some official words (of the Hear Ye, Hear Ye variety) over the historic marker and asked Kyser's daughters to pull the cover off to cheers from the crowd. Many people stayed around to talk to the speakers and Barnes, and to express appreciation.

The entire campaign took nearly two years to pull off - between getting the marker, trying to get people interested, dealing with a state funding delay, getting the location approved, coordinating schedules, getting the facilities and generally putting together the events.

"This was as challenging as any paid job I ever did," Barnes said. "But it was also the most rewarding thing I've ever done. The laughter I heard and the tears I saw and the heartful thanks I received will be remembered forever."

Kay Kyser Marker Application (PDF)

Kay Kyser Marker Dedication Program (PDF)

Jean Phelps Veloz Statement (Word doc)

N.C. Highway Historical Marker to Honor Kay Kyser

Kay Kyser slideshow (PowerPoint)
(You'll need PowerPoint installed on your computer to see this original music-synced version. To get an idea of the slideshow, you can check out the embedded manual version at the bottom.)

Youtube Videos
(You can access the private playlist videos with this log in: wcbarnes3@bellsouth.net, password: KayKyser2018. On the left menu, there is a playlist titled "Kay Kyser Clips." There are 14 clips that last about 55 minutes. It ran on a loop three times during the First Friday event. Also on the left menu, there is a playlist titled "Kay Kyser Documentaries" that ran throughout the First Friday event.)