Joan Delores Kenniff

Joan was raised during the Great Depression in a loving and active home alongside her five siblings of which she was the youngest (and the apple of her father’s eye). During her youth, the family moved from Burlington to East Moline, Illinois, and finally settled in Springfield, Illinois. Her father was an inventor and business owner of Hungarian descent who valued music greatly. Envisioning Joan to become a concert pianist, the family provided piano instruction for her from the age of 6. Eventually, Joan did become a concert pianist and teacher.

While pursuing graduate studies in music (piano performance) at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, she met and married Michael J. Kenniff, an MBA candidate at the University, who would be her husband and dearest friend for 54 years. They married in 1969 and had two children - Christopher and Aimee - while living in Indiana. In 1975, the young family relocated to Chatham, New Jersey, when Michael was transferred to the New York metropolitan area by his employer.

Along with raising children and caring for her family in New Jersey, Joan pursued a career as a private piano instructor and performer, sharing her passion for music and the piano with students, audiences, and colleagues throughout the New York metropolitan area. An engaging, inspiring, and skilled teacher, many of her students developed a lifelong passion for music and remained in touch with her long after their studies with “Mrs. Kenniff” had ended. Joan herself loved learning and continued her piano studies over many years working and building friendships with notable teaching and performing artists Seymour Bernstein and Arminda Canteros.

Joan and Michael, children grown, returned to the midwest in 1997, moving to Carmel, Indiana. They spent 22 joyful years there before moving to Longmont, Colorado, to live near their daughter, Aimee Day, and her family.

Joan overcame several severe illnesses in her lifetime including two bouts with cancer; the first, in the early 1980s, was nearly life ending. During this time she began reading the Bible, put her faith in Jesus Christ and became a Christian, changing her life and greatly impacting many, her family and friends especially. She leaned on this favorite passage of Scripture, changing the pronouns to personalize it: “God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved me, even when I was dead in my sins, made me alive together with Christ …. by grace I have been saved through faith, not by works, it is the gift of God.” [Eph. 2:4-5,8]

Joan loved the Scriptures, Old and New, and became a dedicated student of them. She developed a profoundly personal, yet scholarly understanding of God’s Word that she loved to share one-to-one with others and during bible study groups that she organized and led in her neighborhood, and in assisted living centers. She even developed a website www.heartwisdomstudies.com for the purpose of sharing her class materials and teaching guides at no cost to people wishing to start bible study groups in their own community.

Throughout her life, Joan gave generously of her love, interest, energy, and time to her family, students, and many dear friends. Her joyful spirit, love for family and friends, and indefatigable desire to study deeply and then share what she knew and believed will be remembered by all in her sphere.

Joan is survived and lovingly remembered by her dear husband, Michael, two grown children, Aimee Day, of Boulder, Colorado, and Christopher Kenniff, of Chappaqua, NY, and by her grandchildren, Spencer and Abby Day, and Zachary and Oliver Kenniff, and by her brother, Robert John Debrey, of Edina, MN. Joan is predeceased by her siblings Margaret Debrey (d.1970), Lucille Elizabeth Debrey Korn (d.1993), Andrew Dale Debrey (d. 2007), and James Leroy Debrey (d. 2007).

Joan's place of burial is Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.