Mary Katherine Linaker, known professionally as "Kay Linaker", "Kate Phillips", and "Kay Linaker-Phillips" (b. July 13, 1913 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Pine Bluff is the largest city and county seat of Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Arkansas Combined Statistical Area...

 - d. April 18, 2008 in Keene, New Hampshire

Keene, New Hampshire

Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,409 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cheshire County.Keene is home to Keene State College and Antioch University New England, and hosts the annual Pumpkin Fest...

) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress and screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, who appeared in many B movie

B movie

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....

s during the 1930s and 1940s, most notably Kitty Foyle

Kitty Foyle (film)

Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Ernest Cossart and Gladys Cooper.-Plot:...

 (1940). Linaker used her married name (Kay Phillips) as a screenwriter, notably for the cult movie hit The Blob

The Blob

The Blob is an independently made 1958 American horror/science-fiction film that depicts a giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania...

(1958). She is credited with coining the name "The Blob" for the movie, which was originally titled "The Molten Meteor."

Linaker graduated from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 and acted in supporting roles on Broadway before signing a film contract with Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

.

She later taught in the film studies

Film theory

Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...

 department at Keene State College

Keene State College

Keene State College is a liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is a member of the University System of New Hampshire and of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges....

 in New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 from 1980 to 2006.

From the 1960s to her death, unbeknown to most, Mrs. Phillips dedicated much of her time supporting the children at Hampshire Country School

Hampshire Country School

Hampshire Country School is a private boarding school for gifted children in Rindge, New Hampshire, started by Henry Curtis Patey and Adelaide Walker Patey in 1948. Formerly a co-educational school, it is designed now as a residential middle school for boys with high ability who have difficulty in...

 in Rindge, New Hampshire

Rindge, New Hampshire

Rindge is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,014 at the 2010 census. Rindge is home to Franklin Pierce University, the Cathedral of the Pines, and part of Annett State Forest.-Native American inhabitants:...

. Mrs. Phillips volunteered countless hours over the many years as English teacher and drama coach at the very small private school for twice exceptional

Twice exceptional

The term twice exceptional, often abbreviated as 2e, is commonly applied to high-ability children who have learning difficulties. It refers to the fact that these children are exceptional both because of their intellectual gifts and because of their special needs.A 2e child usually refers to a...

 children whose alumni include Dr. Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin is an American doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior...

.