Kay Brownlee (1912-1971) was employed at the Philadelphia department store B.F. Dewees. Born Anna Kathryn Brownlee on September 4, 1912, to John Harrison Brownlee (1888-1945) and Anna Moeckel Brownlee (1891-1964) in Pennsylvania, “Kay” Brownlee attended Duke University, but apparently could not finish because of the effects of the Depression. She began working at B.F. Dewees Department Store in Philadelphia in the 1930s, and she rose quickly through the ranks. She worked six days per week; supervised the sales force; planned and arranged seasonal parties and other employee events; represented Dewees at seminars, conferences, and other retail events; and wrote and gave speeches about sales and retail. By 1939, Kay Brownlee was representing Dewees as a “style expert” at the Ford Exposition, a large fashion event held in Philadelphia. By 1940, memos indicate that she held the position of personnel director, and while it is possible that she assumed this position earlier, she retained this position until the closing of the store at some time in the late 1960s.

On June 2, 1942, Brownlee wed Francis Clifford Scherer (1907-2001) at Olney Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. The two remained together until Brownlee's death in 1971 and often taught Sunday School together. There were no children by the marriage. Brownlee was the “favorite-aunt” to her nieces and grandnieces. She groomed her niece, Joan, to become a career woman like herself, and hired her to work summers at Dewees. Similarly, she taught her grandnieces how to dress, how to do their hair, and how to walk.

By the late 1960s B. F. Dewees, Inc. had filed for bankruptcy. Brownlee did not long outlive the closing of the store. In 1970, she learned that she had cancer, which she succumbed to in November 1971, shortly after her 59th birthday.