Palestine High School Alumni Association

09 / 01 / 1926  –  04 / 27 / 1992

Services for R.F. “Fred” Kennedy, 65, of Palestine will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Bailey & Foster Funeral Home with Dr. Charles Whitmer, Rev. Darwood Galaway and Dr. Jimmy Tinkle officiating. Burial will be in Roselawn Park.

Mr. Kennedy died Sunday at Trinity Valley Medical Center.  He was born in Palestine on September 1,1926 to Raymond Travis and Myrtle Lee Day Kennedy.  He retired on April 1, 1983 as a train master with Missouri Pacific / Union Pacific Railroads with 38 years of service.

He was a 1943  graduate of Palestine High School.  He served in the Navy during World War II in the South Pacific, Okinawa and Iwo Jima.  In 1949 he received his diesel technology certification from the University of Houston, and while there, played on the Cougar Baseball team.  He was the first special apprentice with the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

He was a member of Slocum Union Church, Lodge 43 AV&AM, the Keystone Trinity Masonic Lodge in Webster Groves, MO., Howard Gardner American Legion Post No. 85 in Palestine and the Retired Missouri Pacific Officers Association.  He marred the former Margaret Ann Wray, of DeQuincy on June 5, 1949 and worked for Missouri Pacific Railroad in DeQuincy.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret Ann Wray Kennedy of Palestine; daughter, Dr. Karen McGraw of Annapolis, MD; son, Stephen T. Kennedy of Lubbock; and five grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Howard Day, Clyde Killion, Ralph Mitchell, Wyatt Jones, Jr., retired Gen. Bill Wray, Ted Fischer, Bill Bartlett and Richard Chapman.

Condolence calls will be received from 7 – 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.