Tracy Kennedy Swindall

The lure that led us back to Austin in the summer of sixty-two was many-magneted and completely irresistible. Family and personal ties, a better than good university, a pretty then placid town, a once perfect place to raise children were the advantages we saw. No one was more adversely affected by that move than Tracy, the youngest child in the family. At daybreak on an April morning in 1955, Tracy Kathleen Kennedy was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. The family lived in Virginia and Florida before returning to Austin in 1962 where Tracy entered the first grade. Except for a year at St. Albert’s Hall in Boerne, all of Tracy’s formal education was completed here. Tracy had beauty, zest and promise. Yet before she was even 16 years old, she had succumbed to the smoldering undercurrents of the drug culture that was to explode in Austin during the sixties and seventies. For the next 30 years in spite of countless family interventions and treatment programs, all the vile influences of hardcore drugs and the unbelievable associations and activities involved held her captive. The last 5 years sharing a home and a bond with her mother were her most stable. We are thankful for that. She didn’t have a college education, she didn’t have a career, but she did have charisma, caring and an innate sweetness that no cruelty could conquer, although she protected herself with a tough exterior at times. Tracy had her own brand of religion and spirituality. She was never a so-called “born again” Christian, yet she wrote her journal entries directly to God, thanking Him for another day, often saying “Good Morning, Sweet World”. As we grieve for her death, we also grieve for her life. Reading her journal we realized that she struggled more valiantly to stop using drugs than anyone ever imagined. We pray she is in a place where she no longer hurts or hungers for drugs. I know she would want to leave this hard-learned legacy to all those at the crossroads, including her own sons: Think carefully about what you want to do with your one irreplaceable life. We know now more than ever how lucky we were to have her in our lives, and are devastated by her sudden death from a massive stroke. We will hold private family services at a later date. Tracy is survived by two sons, Jerry and Sean Swindall of Austin; her mother, Joan Carswell Kennedy of Austin; her father and stepmother, John G. and Ruth Kennedy of San Antonio; her sister, Dian Carswell Cox of Austin; her brother, John Steven Kennedy and his wife Doris of Los Angeles; sister, Kelley Strutton and her husband David of Round Rock; and nieces, Meredith and Elizabeth Strutton and Audrey Kennedy. She is also missed by a very sad cat named Benji. Again, from Tracy’s journal: “Sweet dreams, sweet night”.