Kathryn (Kay) Loder, grew up in Nebraska and Texas, the daughter of a drama professor and an elementary school principal. Her mother was Frances Loder, who taught theater at the University of Texas at Austen for many years. Her older brother was James Edwin Loder, a renowned theologian who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. Loder discussed his younger sister in his book, "The Transforming Moment," saying that a religious experience at the age of 14 diverted her from an emotionally troubled childhood towards a career in the theater. Her distinctive voice and looks, as well as her operatic acting style, made her perfectly suited to play memorable female villains in exploitation pics such as "The Big Doll House" and "Foxy Brown." It is no small irony that the genre itself was passing around the time of her death in 1978.