Kathryn Dozier Bankston, 87: Early radio hostess

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By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Kathryn Dozier Bankston was a woman who wore many hats.

Special, Family At one time Kathryn Dozier Bankston chaired the Radio-TV Institute, which was sponsored by the Henry Grady School of Journalism and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.

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A single mother, her career started in early radio before transitioning into real estate later in life. And between raising a son, taking care of her sister and planning weddings at her church, she had time to write a book.

Kathryn Dozier Bankston of Atlanta died Friday of cancer in a nursing home. Her son said she had been diagnosed the week before Christmas. She was 87.

Mrs. Bankston's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. H.M. Patterson & Son is in charge of the arrangements.

Kathryn Dozier Bankston was born Aug. 29, 1924 to Thomas Howard Dozier Jr., and Katherine Calbeck Dozier in Athens in their home on Milledge Avenue.

She attended Agnes Scott College for two years before transferring to the University of Georgia, where she got a degree in music in 1946. Upon graduation, she played violin with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

She married briefly in the 1940s and had one son, Robert, whom she raised alone after a divorce.

Robert Bankston said his mother started her radio career in the 1950s in Athens. In 1952, she joined WRFC as a copywriter.

"She started out writing copy and eventually had her own radio show," said Mr. Bankston, adding that his mother also did freelance print work and dabbled in poetry, acting and painting.

By 1957, Mrs. Bankston was at WGAU in Athens, where she hosted her own show, "Woman’s Way," for a decade. She was also in sales during her stay at WGAU.

While in Athens, she chaired the Radio-TV Institute, which was sponsored by the Henry Grady School of Journalism and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.

She moved to Atlanta in 1967, where she was named the "Women's Director" of WRNG radio, Atlanta's first all-talk station. Mrs. Bankston hosted the two-hour daily talk show, "Call Kate," becoming one of the first women in Atlanta to have her own show.

She would later move on to television, where she would host shows on three local channels.

In 1976, when Don Kennedy, who spent 14 years as the host of WSB-TV's "The Popeye Club," bought Channel 36 out of bankruptcy, she was one of the original staffers.

In 1986, she left the business and jumped into real estate, starting with Northside Realty and retiring with Jenny Pruitt and Associates.

"For the most part, she thoroughly enjoyed it," Robert Bankston said. "In 1998, when my wife and I moved into our home in McDonough, we hired her as our real estate agent."

As a real estate agent she met and became friends with Birdie Perkins Bomar, who is recognized as Delta's first flight attendant. She collaborated with Bomar, who was by then selling real estate as well, to write, "Birdie: The True Story of Delta's First In-Air Stewardess."

Mrs. Bankston was also deeply devoted to family. In the early 1980s, after her brother-in-law died, she moved in with her older sister, Mary Pallotta, a former administrative judge for the State of Georgia DFCS.

"It meant the world to my mother that [Mrs. Bankston] moved in with her," said Judge Pallotta's son, Frank B. Pallotta. "I was off starting my family, so she was great company for my mother. The two women were inseparable. They went everywhere together. She was a sweet lady."

Additional survivors include one grandson, Bobby Bankston and one great-grandson, Cole Bankston, all of McDonough and a brother, Dr. Thomas Dozier of Celina, Ohio.