Albert Elmo "Al" Kennedy

Funeral: 9::30 a.m. Friday at Shepherd of Life Lutheran Church, 715 E. Lamar Blvd., Arlington 76011. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Moore Funeral Home.

Al was born in East Prairie, Mo., on July 15, 1921, to Earl and Bertha Mae Kennedy. He moved to Edna in 1937, where he graduated from high school in 1939. Al joined the Navy in December of that year and was stationed on the USS Houston. When his ship was sunk on March 1, 1942, Al became a POW of the Japanese, where he lived in several of the most infamous camps and was forced to help construct the Burma-Thailand railway in 1942-1943. He was liberated in Saigon in September 1945.

Al met and married Ilene Russell in Missouri in 1945 on his return to U.S. He enrolled at the University of Missouri on the G.I. Bill, earning a degree in chemical engineering. He worked for years in the welding supply industry, finally establishing his own business, Kennedy Welding Supply, in 1970. He, with his sons, owned and operated that business until it was sold in 1995.

Al was preceded in death by his wife, Ilene Russell Kennedy.

Survivors: He is survived by his sons, Stephen and wife, Carla Kennedy, of Fort Davis and Rusty and wife, Randi Kennedy, of Mansfield; his grandchildren, Julia Kennedy Kirkland, Jessie Kennedy Steinberg and Kyle Kennedy; four great-grandchildren; sisters, Jean Russell, Betty Sewell and Nancy Moore; brothers, Barry Kennedy and Jerry Kennedy.