Kay Trafford was born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1917. In 1937 she married Leslie. With war looming in 1939, their respective parents thought it prudent for them to leave the country and go abroad. Fortunately they were granted a visa to leave Hungary and chose to go to Uruguay. However, it was necessary for them to travel via the UK and it was whilst they were here in the UK that war broke out. Hence they were obliged to stay.
Kay and Leslie lived for some time in Bournemouth and whilst there Leslie was offered a job with a company building airfields in Norfolk. They arrived and after a while bought a house in Buxton, where they stayed till 1948 before moving to Mulbarton. By this time Kay had two children, Susie and Robbie (deceased) and later Anthony was born.
As well as being a constant support to her husband Kay did a lot of voluntary work with the WVS, which later became the WRVS. She was instrumental in setting up ‘Meals on Wheels’ service in Norfolk. For her outstanding efforts she was awarded the WRVS Medal. In 1956 Kay became very involved with the consequences of the Hungarian uprising spending many long hours helping to set up homes for refugees in Catton and also acting as an interpreter. Many of the refugees were also accommodated temporarily in the family home in Mulbarton.
She was trained as a concert pianist so Kay very much appreciated music in the county. She was very active in the Norwich Music Club, and also in what was then the Norwich Triennial Festival. In addition to these activities she spent much of her time working with the mentally handicapped. Her interest in this particular field sprang in large measure from the sad circumstance that her own son, Robbie was handicapped. She set about with a will to raise funds with which to open a home for others similarly disadvantaged. Her efforts were very successful and culminated in the opening of Buckingham House. Throughout all these years she never forgot her Jewish background and was a regular attender at Shul.
After the death of here son Robbie, she began to travel a lot and spent more than three months each year cruising.
Latterly she very much enjoyed her grandchildren Michael and Jackie as well as her great grandchildren. She died on the 19th October 2008, aged 92, after a very short illness.