Kay Ann Kovacs

Kay Ann Kovacs was born Kathro Jane Jinks on April 23, 1934 to Anna Pearl Jones and Albert Ross Jinks in Goshen, Indiana where her father was the high school band teacher. Soon afterwards the family moved to Wabash, Indiana, where A. R. Jinks accepted a position as band director. Kay’s sisters, Anita Sue and Jo Ann were born after the move to Wabash.

At a very early age, with the encouragement of her musically inclined father, Kay took up flute, and with her characteristic persistence and dedication she became a skilled musical performer. (Picture a skinny teen age girl playing “The Flight of the Bumblebee” on the flute at Kiwanis and Rotary Club luncheon meetings). Upon graduation from high school, she was awarded a full scholarship at the prestigious music school at Indiana University. A memorable event of her time at IU was her first flute performance at a concert featuring Brahms’ Fourth Symphony with its lengthy flute solo. It was at IU that she met her future husband, Julius Kovacs. They were married August 12, 1956, and moved to East Lansing, Michigan where Julius had accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Physics at Michigan State University. In addition to her musical skills, Kay was an accomplished painter, and paintings of hers adorn the walls of family and friends, as well as her home.

Before her children were born, Kay taught a fifth and sixth grade combination at Fairview School in Lansing. She left that position before the birth of her first daughter, Julia Ann, in March 1959. Their second daughter, Susan Elizabeth, was born in August 1961.

Kay is survived by her husband Dr. Julius Kovacs, her daughters Susan vonDreele and Dr. Julia Kovacs, and her sister Anita Sue, as well as five grandchildren –Stephen (Jenna) vonDreele, Julia vonDreele, Kiley (Cole) Skorka, Eric Shoner, and Anna Shoner– and three great-grandchildren– Maddison, Luke, and McKinley Skorka. She was pre-deceased by her parents and sister, Jo Ann.