Michele's Journey

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Micheline Trigaci Kay

02 December 1944 --16 February 2011

Extraordinary Journalist

　

Micheline Trigaci Kay transformed herself from journalist to student to professor. Matter-of-fact about her accomplishments, Michele was more comfortable celebrating others, delighting in her roles as wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend. Throughout her life, Michele placed the highest importance on family. She spoke of her family often and lovingly.

Michele cultivated and nurtured friendships from around the world. She maintained friendships forever and was in monthly contact with friends she made when she was a teenager through those she met in Austin. Family and friends were always uppermost in her mind. She adored her children and grandchildren and took enormous pleasure and pride in their adventures and successes.

She was a consummate storyteller whose professional life, while grounded in journalism, included stints in politics, business and community involvement. She was determined to shed some light in this world through her writing and teaching, and her work shone like a beacon. She was well traveled, fiercely independent and never shrank from a challenge. She met difficulties with courage, humor and a dedication to hard work. She never seemed to have had an ethical dilemma--she just always did whatever was right.

Told that she never did anything less than 100 percent, she said did not see the point in doing it any other way. In reflecting on the time she had devoted to journalism, she concluded that she knew no other way to approach it, saying simply, “I thought the work was important.”

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Born in Cairo, Egypt on December 2, 1944, Michele lived in London, Hong Kong, Saigon, San Francisco, Paris, Tel Aviv, New York, Dallas and Austin. Her first language was French and she learned English at age 12.

She became a British citizen by an act of Parliament at the request of the Queen – a favor in return for her father’s work diverting classified cables to the British government while the family lived in Cairo. Those espionage activities at the communications company he managed caused the entire family to be placed under house arrest and ultimately deported from Egypt on Michele’s 12th birthday.

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Michele first journalism position was with the Hong Kong Standard at age 17. She first covered weddings, which she described as a disaster, and later wrote news -- which, she said, at first, went only slightly better. She soon was good enough for a job at the bigger, more prestigious South China Morning Post as its first woman covering hard news

She married her Hong Kong sweetheart, Keith Kay, at age 20, after he was drafted into the Army and stationed in New Jersey. The couple lived in New York and Michele worked for the Pakistan Mission to the UN, Pfizer and a pharmaceutical magazine. When Keith’s Army stint was over, the couple moved to Saigon, without jobs and on borrowed money, but firmly believing they each would find something interesting to do.

Keith was hired by CBS to cover the Vietnam War, Michele got a job with Pan American World Airways, making sure the traveling GIs were being treated well and their logistical problems were solved. After the war ended, the couple lived in Hong Kong and Paris, where Michele took a job with the American Chamber of Commerce.

In 1981, the family moved to Rockwall, where Michele was an editor and columnist for the Dallas/Fort Worth Business Journal and later, senior editor of Texas Business Magazine.

When the Austin American-Statesman was looking for a business editor in 1988, Michele was ready. She moved to Austin and held various posts at the Statesman, including editorial writer, Washington correspondent and Texas Capitol reporter. She covered the intersection of politics and policy with flair and a dogged determination to be the first with the story and to perfect the telling of it, whatever time it took. She brought the same professionalism to her work as a columnist and an editor.

While journalism defined her professional life, Michele also had first hand experience in the world of politics. She was press secretary for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn during his 1998 campaign for attorney general. She also worked with Carole Keeton Strayhorn when she was comptroller. Michele obtained her U.S. citizenship in 1997 so that she could have a direct say in the electoral process.

Michele fulfilled a life goal in 2002 by obtaining her undergraduate degree. She had never been to college in her youth, but her hard work, intelligence, and lifetime experience enabled Michele to complete her coursework in two years. She loved school and in 2005, earned a master’s degree from St. Edward’s University.

In the past year, she worked closely with friends Mary Ann and Catherine on a memoir that expanded her master’s thesis about displaced persons. It centers on her experience of being deported from Egypt and the impact that had on her life and her family. We expect it to be published late this year.

She found a second professional love in teaching at St. Ed’s, where she set high expectations for her students and worked hard to help them meet her standards. Many of her students kept in touch with her, and she cherished their support and friendship.

As an assistant professor at St. Edward’s University for three years, she created the school’s journalism minor program and remade the student newspaper. “I wasn’t really a teacher,” Michele said of her love of interacting with the students. “I was somebody with a passion for something who wanted to share it with them.”

Michele is also survived by her brother, Jean Pierre Trigaci of Majorca, Spain; cousins Denyse Milton of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; the Ardith-Gilkman-Eteve family of Paris, France; the Magid family of Kyneton, Victoria, Australia.

Michele and I found love in a second marriage. We were complementary opposites in nearly every way--she the always sociable and affable very liberal liberal arts major and I the always shy conservative nerd engineer. But somehow it worked and I was never happier. Through much effort, Michele was able to mend my badly damaged relationships with my sons and we became a truly blended family. She took great pride in the accomplishments of my sons and their wives.

Michele often discussed her belief that everyone should strive to make the world a better place and leave behind a legacy of good deeds. I believe that she did that.

Michele was the most interesting woman I ever met.

I will always be thankful for Michele.

RKS