The backlight controller works. Unfortunately I toasted the backlight controller on the first board. I have a 3 Ohm sense resistor on the board, perhaps that was too low and maybe I cranked up the current too fast.  On the second board I removed the 3 Ohm and put 20 Ohms for the sense resistor and it works. Also I got confused for a bit because the backlight would start to work and then turn off. Realized that without a microcontroller board attached, that the backlight’s standby pin would float and shut it off. I connected the backlight standby pin to VDD and all is well. 

I did a test fit of the display.  The touch controller needs to be nudged a bit north by a couple millimeters.  It has enough slack for now.

Yay!  Next step is to connect the microcontroller board.  Hope everything is wired properly.  It works!