Kennedy Mary 1842-1904

KENNEDY, ALWARD

Posted By: Doris Hoffman, Volunteer (email)
Date: 7/20/2015 at 20:01:37

FUNERAL OF MRS. KENNEDY

Passed Away Peacefully in California on the Fortieth Anniversary of Her Wedding.

The belated morning train glided mournfully into the Akron station at 2 o'clock this (Thursday) afternoon, bearing the mortal remains of Mrs. J. F. Kennedy, which had just ended the long, sad journey from Los Angeles, California. Exaxtly one week had elapsed since the sad intelligence of her death was received by wire and anxiety of all friends as to the particulars and cause of her departure was held suspended during the entire time until the following details were brought to light:

The party consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Hubbard, sister of the departed one, occupied a cottage at Newport Beach, California, and had plans to move to another point on the beacvh within a few days. On Thursday morning, January 28, 1904, Mr. Kennedy strolled to the beach with a neighbor. Mrs. Hubbard left the cottage soon thereafter to call on a nearby neighbor, leaving Mrs. Kennedy sitting on the porch, apparently in the best of her health, and, while taking her departure, she noticed Mrs. Kennedy getting up to go into the cottage to pack shells in her grip. On her return in five minutes she found Mrs. Kennedy prostrate on the floor apparently sleeping, but, alas! the sad truth soon revealed itself that her soul ahd taken its flight to the spirtual realm, leavin behind no marks of struggle on her countenance to tell the tale. The cause of her sudden death is supposed to be a cessation of her heart action.

"One paces up and down the shore yet a while," says Thackeray, and thinks of the traveler whose boat sailed yesterday." These lines bring back to our mind of the delight a little while ago Mrs. Kennedy took at Lordsbury, California, in coming from the meadows heavily laden with the fragrant fowers of all kinds. And on the shore, too, she basked in warm sunshine and seemed to enjoy such as she had never before, but the Lord saw fit to pluck the choicest flower and beckoned her to a better land of eternal bliss.

Miss Mary Alward was born in Canada June 30, 1842, and moved to Illinois in 1849. On January 28, 1864, she was united in marriage to J. F. Kennedy at Freeport, Illinois, and had rounded out the fortieth anniversary of her marriage at the time of her death. In 1870, they moved to Floyd county, Iowa, residing there for about eighteen years, then they came to Akron nearly sixteen years ago. Beside her husband and two sisters--Mrs. Hubbard, of Mason City, Iowa, and Lrs. Lapp, of Lordsburg, California--she leaves as a legacy to her two sons, Walter R. of Wagner, S. D., and David E., of Akron, and two daughters, Mrs. Fred W. Burnett, of Akron, and Mrs. A. E. Peters, of Le Mars, a blameless life and a sweet remembrance of her cheerful, loving disposition.

Funeral services were held at the M. E. Church Friday afternoon, February 5, Rev. F. L. Moore conducting. The church was crowded to its capacity with sympathizing friends and beautifully decked with emblems of mortality. On and around the coffin were rare and beautiful floral pieces worked into tender and pathetic tributes of loving friends to her memory. In that still auditorium the faint scent of roses pervaded the atmosphere and through the windows the winter sun struggled like a soft benediction when the sound of a tender solo, My Mother's Beautiful Hands," followed by a choir, "Will Never Say Good Night Again," arose full of comfort and hope like the chord of an organ. Rev. Moore stated that her past actions were sufficient for a sermon for the ultimate acceptence of Jesus by the loved ones.

With tender and loving hands the remains were laid to rest in the Akron cemetery.

Akron Register Tribune
Thursday, February 4, 1904
Akron, Iowa