October 11, 2010

Veteran stage and screen actress Mary Katherine (Kay) Linaker (known later as Kate Phillips) was born in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) in 1913. She appeared in more than fifty feature films, including the Lum and Abner film Two Weeks to Live, starring fellow Arkansas natives Chester Lauck and Norris Goff. In 1958, she wrote the screenplay for the science fiction cult classic The Blob. Until her death in 2008, she passed on her knowledge by teaching young aspiring thespians and writers.