Keith McKnight’s wife passes away

Denise Kay McLean McKnight, retired BJ deputy Metro editor Keith McKnight’s wife, passed away Saturday, November 12.

After Keith took a 2008 buyout after 30 years at Ol’ Blue Walls, I came across him and Kay in 2010 working her D. Jay’s French Waffles wagon at a festival on Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls.

Their home is in Wadsworth and they have a Christmas tree farm in Southern Ohio.

They met when Keith was at the Willoughby News Herald and hired University of Maine faculty member David McClain as a reporter. David guided Keith to Kay, his sister.

Keith explained: "David introduced me to Kay. We met first by telephone and then on a blind date. It progressed from there."

Keith shared the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative journalism in 1990 with Bob Paynter and Andy Zajac. Keith and Bob Paynter also were involved in a BJ Pulitzer, in 1994 for "A Question of Color" series.

Kay’s obituary:

Denise Kay McKnight

WADSWORTH -- Denise Kay McKnight, of Wadsworth, Entrepreneur of D. Kay’s Waffles, which had a following throughout 19 counties in Northeast and Central Ohio, passed away late Saturday at Summa Akron City Hospital following a long illness. She was 66.

Kay McKnight

 She is survived by her husband, Keith, a retired Akron Beacon Journal reporter and editor; their daughter, Chelsea, and son-in-law, Barry Hillman, who took over the concession business following her stroke in 2012. She was preceded in death by their son, Matthew in 2002, and her brother, David L. McLean in 2015.

She was born November 29, 1949 in Bazetta, Ohio, she was the daughter of the late David W. and Thelma McLean. After graduating from Niles McKinley High School in 1967, she served in the 

Keith McKnight

U.S. Navy and attended The Ohio State University. She was a real estate agent for Bobinger Realty and Marting Realty before starting the concession business in 1994.

She is also survived by a sisters, June Karovic of Cortland, Lynn Young of Kinsman, Roberta Hubler of Dayton; brothers, William McLean of Olympia, Wash., and Jerry McLean of Wadsworth.

Family will receive friends 5 to 8 p.m. , Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at the Hilliard Rospert Funeral Home, 174 N. Lyman St., Wadsworth ,Ohio. Where funeral services will be conducted Thursday at 1 p.m. Interment will be at Woodlawn Cemetery.

Hilliard-Rospert 330-334-1501 HilliardRospert.com