Emily Kennedy

Kennedy, Emily 4/20/1926 - 12/24/2017 Ann Arbor Emily Flickinger Kennedy, passed to her eternal reward on Sunday, December 24, 2017. She was at home in Ann Arbor, surrounded by her family. She was 91 years old, and had been bedridden for the last couple of years, cared for by an amazing team of caregivers. Emily was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 20, 1926. She was the youngest of four children, with two older brothers and one older sister. She attended the all-girls Park Tudor high school along with her sister, and was quite an athlete. Park Tudor offered several sports for girls, and Emily played baseball, basketball, field hockey and tennis, took ballet and piano classes, and graduated with highest academic honors as well. She then went on to attend Radcliffe College, which at the time was the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College (it merged into Harvard in 1999). Her two brothers had gone to Harvard earlier. At Radcliffe, she met the man she would eventually marry, Ted Kennedy Jr., who was attending Harvard business school. He was five years older than she was, and he graduated from the Harvard MBA program at the same time Emily graduated from the Radcliffe undergraduate program. They were married a few months after graduation. Suddenly, 10 years later, as she described it "we had a nice house, Ted had a good job working with his father in a small company in Ann Arbor, and we had six healthy children." Shortly after they were married, both Emily and Ted accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and that made a huge impact on their lives. They began attending a "wonderful Presbyterian church where people seemed to have a special joy of the Lord." Over the years, they attended several other churches, always searching for churches where people were really dedicated to God. Eventually they settled in the Episcopal Church, largely because of the influence of a very dynamic church in Houston, Texas called The Church of the Redeemer. In the late 1960's they became involved in the Charismatic Renewal and were members of the Word of God community in Ann Arbor for many years. At some point, Emily went back to school at Eastern Michigan University and earned a Masters degree in Guidance and Counselling. She put this to good use for many years as a volunteer with Emotions Anonymous, where she helped many people find peace and healing. Ted passed away in 2002 from an abdominal aortic aneurism, and Emily moved out of their house on Granger Street (where they had lived for 48 years). She moved to the north side of Ann Arbor on English Oak for her remaining years. While on Granger, Emily was one of the matriarchs of Burns Park, along with several other amazing ladies. They were the early pillars of what became (and still is) one of the most amazing neighborhoods in Ann Arbor. Emily kept up her tennis, even while giving birth to and raising six children, and was a perennial force in women's doubles and mixed doubles. She won each of these tournaments at least once. In spite of her Hoosier roots, she became a true-blue Michigan fan (her husband Ted and her son Ted both played on the football team), and she loved watching Michigan sports until her dying day. (In fact, she loved watching all sports until her dying day especially football and tennis). She also had a special place for the Indianapolis 500 race because two of her uncles founded the race and were the race stewards for many years. Memorial Day was a "holy day of obligation" for the Flickinger family watching the Indy 500. Emily is survived by her six children: Vicki, Ted, Charley, Dan, Sarah and Mary and 15 grand-children and 5 great-grand-children. Vicki lives in Texas with her husband Rick, son Bobby (married to Kristen), and daughter Gina (married to Philip). Bobby and Gina each have two children. Mary lives in Denver with her husband Joseph and their children Grace, Faith and Luke. The other kids all stayed in the Ann Arbor area. Ted is a member of a men's religious order called The Servants of the Word. Charley is married to Hisai and has three children (Ted, Tom and Corrie) and three step-children (Inori, Kotoba, and Sei). Dan is married to Nancy and has four daughters: Emily (married to Alex Marlow), Susan (married to Mark Dodge and living in Washington State, with their new-born daughter), Sarah (living in Detroit) and Allison (living in Kalamazoo). Emily's daughter Sarah is married to Frank Rampton and has a son Jim (married to Lindsey), and daughter Jessie (married to Sam Dodge yes he is Mark's brother living in California), and Julia. Emily enjoyed deep and meaningful relationships with all of her children, their spouses, her grand-children, and Ted's brothers in The Servants of the Word. She loved them all, and they all loved her. Visitation will be at 12:00 noon on Saturday, January 6th at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, with the funeral following at 1:00. There will be a short graveside service for family and close friends and then a reception for all at Ann Arbor Golf and Outing Club around 2:30. In lieu of flowers or gifts, please consider contributing to St. Andrew's Church, which Emily always loved, even though she couldn't go very often in her last couple of years. Emily never stopped reaching out to those around her, always willing and eager to help anyone in need. She especially loved sharing about her Lord and Savior, Jesus.