Kay T. Bearman

On October 2nd, Kay T. Bearman passed away at the age of 85. She lived a remarkable life, and her friends and family around the world remember her with respect, admiration, and love.

While she was born in Memphis, TN, Kay was a New Yorker through and through. After graduating from Smith College in 1960, Kay moved to Manhattan and began working for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. For the vast majority of her life, Kay was a significant figure at The Met, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts. She counted among her friends artists of great cultural significance, art historians, museum employees, gallery owners, politicians, and many others who were advocates for the arts. Friends from The Met, where Kay worked for 50 years, remember her as one of, "those essential and essentially unheralded women who have shaped modern and contemporary art over the twentieth century in and well beyond New York."

Kay took her friendships very seriously. She had friends of every age and friendships of every tenure. As Kay declined in health, her family heard from so many of her friends who told stories of 20, 30, 40, and even 80+ years of friendship. Kay considered herself lucky to have both newly-made and "forever friends."

Kay lived her life on her terms, and she loved the life she built for herself.

She was entirely free of artifice and absolutely magnetic. She was the kind of person who would fly across the country because you needed her but would refuse to wait for more than a few minutes in any line. She was so loving, and she had a spine of steel. Kay was effortlessly chic, and she would have rolled her eyes at anyone who described her in that way. She was a family historian who sought out connections to far-off relatives. She flew around the world to hear the opera that fed her soul, and she delighted in the babbling and chaotic sounds of her great, great-nieces. Kay never met an authority figure that she wouldn't challenge, and she rejected everyone else's expectations of who or what she should be. She was a role model to many, and she was someone who you knew would support you as you followed your own path.

Kay was wonderful, independent, passionate, loyal, acerbic, hilarious, creative, biting, determined, generous, and brave. More than anything else, Kay was loved.

Kay was the daughter of the late Leo Edward Bearman and Dorothy Folz Bearman and the sister and sister-in-law of the late Leo Maurice Bearman and Joy Magdovitz Bearman.

Kay is mourned by her nephews and nieces, David and Judy Bearman, Edward and Terri Bearman, Amy and Richard Dorsey, her great-nieces and great-nephews, Rachel Bearman, Anna Bearman and Nathan Stamper, Leah and Matthew Pinkston, Ethan Bearman, Emma Bearman, Isaac Dorsey, and Levi Dorsey, and her great, great-nieces, Dorothy and Ari Pinkston.

Kay also leaves behind countless friends from every stage of her life.

Donations in memory of Kay Bearman can be made to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kay's family asks that those making donations to The Met indicate that the notices should be sent to KayBearmanFamily@gmail.com".

Funeral Services will be held in Levy-Cooper Chapel at Temple Israel Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 1:00 p.m.

On one of her last days, Kay asked to look at old pictures from throughout her life. As she sifted through them, she said, "It's so nice to have so many memories."

Those who love her will carry Kay's memory with them as they move forward. Her life and spirit will be blessings to all those who remember her.