John W. Kennedy

No obituary can describe the totality of a person, much less one who lived over a century. John's pension for storytelling has left his family and friends with a keen sense of a magnificent and well-lived life.

John was born in the St. Boniface neighborhood of Winnipeg, Manitoba on July 19th, 1921. His mother Marie Legoff moved to Canada with her family from the Bretagne region of Northern France in 1907, and his father Phillip Kennedy's family had immigrated from Ireland years earlier. John had fond memories of growing up in Canada, playing ice hockey on a local pond with neighborhood kids in the winter and diving off the Norwood bridge into the Red River in the summer. He spoke of shooting sling shots with his younger brother Charlie and playing the harmonica while perched in a tree near his home and watching his little sister Louise play nearby.

In High School he discovered his life's passion - aviation. He worked at a local airfield cleaning engine parts in exchange for the occasional chocolate bar or Coca Cola.

John dropped out of Catholic school in the 10th grade due in part to the nuns who used to rap his knuckles for the slightest infraction, and in part because he was eager to leave home and start his life. After a few odd jobs, he decided to enlist in the Royal Canadian Airforce in the spring of 1940. He completed basic training near Hamilton Ontario and was stationed in Gander Newfoundland where he was trained and worked as a flight engineer. John deployed to Europe just as the United States entered the war, and flew over thirty night missions over occupied Belgium, France and Germany. There were parts of his time in the service that he genuinely enjoyed. The memories he preferred to share were of travel and leisure time bicycling through the English countryside, drinking pints with the locals and admiring the beautiful countryside. He spent five years and four months in the military.

Upon returning to Canada, John moved to Toronto where he rented a room from a Jewish family near Kensington Market. He spoke very highly of them and how they provided home cooked meals and only charged him around $40 a month in rent. He continued his career in aviation working as a mechanic for AVRO which at the time was developing the CF-100 Canuck fighter jet. John spent a fair part of his 20s and 30s in the Great Lakes region. He had three lifelong loves, the first being classical music. He regularly drove from Toronto to Detroit to visit his Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Taras, who played the violin for the Detroit symphony. His love of classical music stayed with him his entire life and even into his mid 90s you could find him reading the newspaper from cover to cover in the morning while listening to his music. His second love was his taste in clothing. When he wasn't in oil-soaked overalls, wrench in hand he was in a suit and tie out on the town. The third and most important love was meeting Dorothy Boudreau at a local church dance. She worked as a nurse at a Children's hospital in Toronto. They married in 1954 and honeymooned across the lake in Buffalo NY. John and Dorothy had three daughters, Phyllis was born in 1955, Marjorie in 1958 and Carol in 1960. In 1964 they decided to move to Southern California after a coworker told John about the growing opportunities in aviation at the Los Angeles airport. After an interview with Continental Airlines at LAX he was hired on the spot. His career lasted until 1983 when he retired, and he always spoke fondly of his years working for Continental and how much he loved his job.

After retiring he traveled across the United States and Canada, visiting family and friends and always preferring to drive and see the countryside in his green Cadillac coupe de Ville. He would always say you can't see anything from 30,000 feet in the air, but he did make an exception when flying to Europe a few times. Dorothy didn't like to travel, much less sitting in a car for hours and preferred to tend to her flowers and garden while John was away.

After Dorothy passed away in 1996, John spent a few more years in California before deciding to move to Colorado in 2001 to be close to his youngest daughter Carol, her husband Ken and his three Grandsons Nick, Jon and Cameron. He cherished the opportunity to be with family and work in the yard of his little house.

He had the privilege of taking the Northern Colorado veteran Honor Flight to Washington DC in the spring of 2015 at the age of 94 to see the WW2 memorial and he spoke of this trip with excitement for many years after.

Once his mobility and eyesight became more limited and at the age of 95, he was very grateful for the opportunity to build a small suite behind Carol and Ken's home to be closer to family. This is where he enjoyed the rest of his life. Wherever he was he enjoyed working in the yard, tinkering with projects, enjoying an ice-cold Canadian Lager on the patio, or a nightcap of Cognac. This is how we will remember you, in the yard pointing out your projects, telling a story.

Cheers to a singular life!

John requested no funeral service. A celebration of life for family and friends will be held at a later date. Fond memories of John and words of condolence for his family are welcome at resthavencolorado.com.