Katherine Whitney Curtis

[2] Kay Curtis introduced synchronized swimming in 1934 at the Chicago World's Fair with Norman Ross as her announcer.

[3] She staged a production for the Armed Forces in the spectacular fountains and pools and gardens of the palace built by the Kings of the Two Sicilys and used as Allied headquarters in Caserta, Italy.

Her father, Lee Whitney, was Chief Clerk of the Milwaukee branch of the Federal Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.

While Katharine and her siblings (two brothers and one sister) were still young their mother moved them to Delafield, Wisconsin, while their father remained in Milwaukee.

[2] Between September 1919 and June 1921, she taught physical education at The Principia, a private high school and college in St. Louis, Missouri.

Katharine then enrolled at the University of Chicago in September 1923 to complete work on a Bachelor of Science degree, which she obtained on June 16, 1925.

She organized and trained the Kay Curtis Modern Mermaids, a swimming act of thirty girls who performed at the world's fair (Century of Progress International Exposition) in Chicago in 1933–1934.

Curtis was assigned to Marsailles, France, in October 1945 as Assistant Area Supervisor of Red Cross clubs, remaining there until early 1946.

[2] Her duties included coordination between European bureaus of tourism, private travel agencies, and groups of U.S. armed forces personnel.

Curtis remained with the Special Services Unit until September 1962, when she retired and settled in the Washington Island (Wisconsin) cottage which her mother had occupied for many years, named Ferda Lokin (which means "Journey's End).

[2] Curtis continued to travel extensively both in the U.S. and Europe and receiving awards for her pioneering career in synchronized swimming.

In 1970 Curtis sold her Washington Island house, and moved to Florida in order to escape demands on her time, but did not care for the heat and humidity there.