Velma Kennedy

Our family mourns the loss of our beloved Mom and “Amie,” Velma Kennedy, who completed her life in the early morning of May 18, 2024 at Otterbein Senior Living in Granville, Ohio. She was 90, having celebrated her birthday on February 24.

Velma was preceded in death by her parents Sherman and Josephine Phillips, her brother Sherman Phillips, Jr., her cousins Marlene Sandberg and Elaine Reed, and her husband of 56 years, Herb Kennedy. She is survived by her three daughters: Cheryl McFarren (husband Mathew), Lisa Kennedy-Leary (husband Steve), and Kathleen Kennedy. Other surviving family members include nephew Lance Gordon and cousins Anne Bradford (husband Dan) and Kurt Sandberg (wife Jenny) and their children. Velma was proud of her five young adult grandchildren: Brianna Leary, Tobin McFarren, MacKayla Kennedy-Harris, and McKenzie and Nicholas Leary.

She was born Velma ReVay Phillips in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1934. Having lived in four states, and having traveled to numerous others, she nevertheless always considered California her true home.

Velma’s early life was marked by several tragedies. Her father was killed in an accident when she was only 5. At the age of 7, she took shelter during the bombing of nearby Pearl Harbor on the military base where she and her mother and younger brother lived. Because of these upheavals, her mother Jo traveled stateside, and moved to Kansas with Velma and Sherman, Jr. to stay with relatives. Aunt Alma - Sherman Sr.’s sister - and Alma's second husband, Uncle Pink, were "bonus parents" to Velma. Alma taught her sister-in-law Jo how to fix hair and sent her to beauty school. Eventually, with a trade and the ability to earn a living, Jo moved the family to Oakland, California, to share a home with her elder sister Christine and Christine’s twin daughters Marlene and Elaine.

Velma thrived at Oakland High, active in drama and student government. As her class secretary, she met senior class president Herb Kennedy, and the two fell in love. After Herb graduated and went on to college at Cal Berkeley, Velma finished at Oakland High. She enrolled at San Francisco State, and earned a BA in education. Velma married Herb on June 12, 1955, prior to completing that degree. The couple bought a home on Saroni Drive, above the Montclair business district circa 1960 with a mortgage of $20,000, a large sum to them then.

Velma found her vocation in teaching elementary school pupils in the Oakland Public Schools. She began student teaching at Hawthorne Elementary in 1954 as "Miss Phillips." The next year, she returned to her own classroom, surprising students as "Mrs. Kennedy." Loretta Chin, a student in that first class, became a devoted friend in adulthood. Velma paused her teaching in 1963, when she moved to Paris, France with Herb for a year.

Velma’s motherhood aspirations were eventually fulfilled; she gave birth to three girls between 1964 and 1968. In her home, she taught her children many life lessons with the help of her mother and mother-in-law Dorothy. (In those years, Herb was teaching at Skyline High and in graduate school at Stanford.) The girls experienced lullabies, creativity, wonder, and Velma’s love of nature. There were memorable trips to the Knowland Park Zoo, to Children’s Fairyland, and to Montclair Park.

As the girls grew, Velma returned to teaching in the Oakland Schools, at first as a sub, and eventually earning herself a full time position at Joaquin Miller Elementary, near her home in Montclair. She specialized in the upper grades and often taught a combination 5th/6th grade class. She presented her students with the basic curriculum, yes, but truly glowed with all of the enrichment opportunities she planned and carried out: Class camping trips to Pt. Reyes, nature hikes in Muir Woods with naturalist Elizabeth Terwilliger (“Mrs. T”), and whale watching in Monterey Bay. Velma taught in Room 13 until her retirement from full time teaching in 2000, after the birth of her first grandchild, Brianna. Roughly estimated, she taught over 900 students in her career.

In the early 1970s, Velma and Herb began taking the family to vacation on the coast at Jenner, in Sonoma County. They soon developed a plan to purchase property with Velma’s retirement savings. When they found a modest oceanfront lot in Mendocino County, three miles south of Pt. Arena, they invested those savings to make their dream a reality. Herb, with the assistance of friend Ben Schwartz and Velma’s uncle Fred, built a house on that property that they enjoyed for decades. Velma designed the floor plan so that the kitchen and dining area were upstairs, where the view of the ocean was glorious. She and her girls and several childhood friends created a protective wall for the fireplace unit, applying concrete to chicken wire and then adding stones and shells that they’d found beachcombing. Velma also tiled the floors and walls of the bathroom herself, and chose and installed a large tile mosaic on the staircase landing.

It should be noted that during the 1970s Velma also selflessly assumed caretaking responsibility for several elderly family members (Aunt Alma, Josephine, and her uncle Fred). She enhanced their connections with our family, advocated for them, and found them suitable living situations at the ends of their lives. She was grateful to them for the ways they had cared for her, and felt duty bound to reciprocate.

Velma was a lifelong learner, who loved studying nature and engaging in all kinds of crafts. She knit prolifically until arthritis put an end to it, and engaged in macrame, stained glass, ceramics, and sewing. She adored traveling with Herb. With their appetites whetted by their year in France, they traveled to Mexico as well as many European countries. A highlight was a river cruise down the Danube. In the days before carry-on limitations, Velma always returned with her bags stuffed with thoughtful (and often fragile) gifts.

She moved to Granville’s continuing care retirement community in 2016, near Cheryl and her family. She impressed all of us with her graceful acceptance of this cross-country move. At Kendal (later Otterbein), she enjoyed simple pleasures - new friendships with residents and staff, four seasons, and a striking variety of birds outside her living room window - until the end of her days. Proudly, she always identified as a Californian, despite her Ohio zip code.

Contributions to honor Velma may be made to Maine’s Center for Ecological Teaching and Learning, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering the sorts of engagement with the natural world that Velma loved and taught others to love; her daughter Kathleen is a founder of this organization and the current President of the Board. (https://www.cetlmaine.org/)

Velma will take her final rest at the St. Aloysius cemetery in Pt. Arena, California on June 12, 2024, returning to Herb’s side on the date of their wedding anniversary. There will be memorial celebrations of her life in Oakland at the Skyline Church of Oakland, 12540 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, California 94619, On June 15, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. with a reception to follow and in Granville, Ohio at a later date. Please email Cheryl at [email protected] with questions.

Criss Wagner Hoskinson Funeral and Cremation Service, Newark, Ohio is honored to care for Velma and her family.