R. Emmet Kennedy (as he was known), died of a heart attack while on a visit to New Orleans. He was in Max Samson's Drug Store at 117 Camp Street. He had walked into the store and asked a clerk for a pack of cigarettes; before he received them, he collapsed and was pronounced dead on the arrival of a Charity Hospital ambulance.
He was born on January 11, 1877 in Gretna, Louisiana, just a ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi River from New Orleans, to Dennis Kennedy and Elinor (Ellen) Dixon,
both Irish immigrants. Robert had five siblings - two who grew to adulthood. He was the youngest of the three siblings. The oldest, Lillian (who grew up to marry Harry H Hardy and was the mother to Emmett Hardy, a child prodigy and New Orleans jazz cornet musician, who entered a 1919 music contest where after long and intense struggle Hardy succeeded in outplaying Louis Armstrong) and William "Denis" Kennedy.
Kennedy was "an author, Irish poet, folk-lorist, interpreter of early African-American dialect, and book reviewer for the New York Times; a man of music—concert pianist, singer, composer, recorder and preservationist of "Negro spirituals"; a man of drama—actor and recitalist; a man of art—accomplished painter for self and friends; a man of business—accountant and antique
dealer in New York". *
In the Kennedy household, music was always in the air. His father, Dennis, was a gifted musician who loved playing Irish jigs on his fiddle for his family. He was later joined by another fiddler, William D. White, also a blacksmith from the village, who played German tunes. With the music playing, mother Elinor would sing and dance with the children and act out the actable old Irish songs such as "Johnny Sands" and others.
Emmet's life changed at the tender age of seven - the Sunday morning he first heard African-American spirituals sung ensemble at the New Hope Baptist Church on 7th Street. Emmet's childhood friends and playmates were Sammy and Johnny Sparks, sons of Aunt Julie Sparks (Julie's mother was Milleete Narcisse, formerly a slave on one of the plantations up-river from Gretna) who was one of the lead singers in the New Hope Baptist Church. The church was, and still is, on 7th Street, adjacent to the back yard of the Kennedy home.* After that introduction, he would stand "on a highchair in the kitchen door and looking out over the backyard, beyond which stands the little old church. The back window of the church is open, and through it the little boy is eagerly watching his playmates, Sammy and Johnny, who have gone to Sunday school with their mother. Aunt Julie is standing near the open window with her two sons, and their voices ring out with welling gladness as they sing the triumphant ‘shout' called ‘Free at Last.' The two little boys sing lustily, looking the while in the direction of the little white boy standing on his highchair in a transport of admiration, bravely trying to sing with them.*
This triumphant "shout" had been sung by the African-Americans since the days of slavery, but it was Kennedy who took the song down in writing and set it to
music before 1900. Note that the words of the first two lines are the words Martin Luther King, Jr., used in his famous "I have a dream" speech in August of 1963.
'Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty got
free at las'. Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty
got free at las'. Some come crip-ple an' some come lame
Thank God A'mighty got free at las'; Some come walkin' in my
Jes-us' name - Thank God A'mighty got free at las'.*
Through his life, "the one enduring fascination that captivated Emmet was his love of the "Negro spirituals" and dialect of the black people living in East Green, a black community in Gretna. East Green extended from Newton Street east to Richard Street, beyond a wide-open green expanse. The area included many white families up to at least what is now Fried Street, and the Kennedy home on 8th Street was in the center of East Green.
Emmet would be seen at every black wake, funeral, baptism, wedding, or special event at the New Hope Baptist Church, listening to the spirituals, or hymns, or "ballets" in simple form and writing the words down from the singing of the African-Americans. He would later set many of the spirituals to music for piano and voice—the first to do so in the East Green—and thereby initiating the preservation of many "Negro spirituals" and hymns that are still being sung in black churches throughout South Louisiana and in many other sections of the South."*
He became determined to preserve for the ages the simple life and character and folklore and music of the southern "negro". He moved to New York in 1923 to further what he thought might be a successful career as a concert pianist. He worked first as a book clerk at Scribner's, then operated an antique shop at 449 Park Avenue. Following the publication of his books Kennedy was eagerly sought as a lecturer on "Negro" music and folklore. While there, he published five books on African-American spirituals and dialect. This gained him nation-wide fame as author, folklorist, musician and composer.
His published books are (a few books are written in "Negro" dialect):
Black Cameos - 1924
Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers - 1925
From The Corner Table, New York, 1925
Runes and Cadences, Being Ancestral Memories of Old Heroic Days - 1925
Gritney People - 1927
Red Bean Row - 1929
More Mellows - 1931
Songs of An Alien Spirit - 1940 (his last published work - about mythology of the pagan Irish)
According to his death notice, Mr. Kennedy became ill in June (1941), and returned to New Orleans to visit a niece, Mrs. T. A. Humphreys, 2445 Gladiolus Street. In addition to Mrs. Humphrey's, he is survived by a sister, Lillian C. Hardy, two nephews, Hilton and Connell Hardy. A third nephew, the late Emmett Hardy, was one of the best known cornet interpretors of early New Orleans jazz; brother of the late Dennis Kennedy; aged 64 years; a native of Gretna and a resident of New York for 19 years.
His funeral will be conducted on November 23, 1941 at the Leitz-Eagan funeral home, 2512 Magazine street, with interment in the Hook and Ladder Cemetery, in Gretna.
*R. Emmet Kennedy (permanent) Exhibit at the Jefferson Parish Library, Gretna Branch located at 102 Willow Drive, Gretna, Louisiana - exhibit by Mr. J. B. Borel.
Emmett Hardy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 3.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 2.
He was born on January 11, 1877 in Gretna, Louisiana, just a ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi River from New Orleans, to Dennis Kennedy and Elinor (Ellen) Dixon,
both Irish immigrants. Robert had five siblings - two who grew to adulthood. He was the youngest of the three siblings. The oldest, Lillian (who grew up to marry Harry H Hardy and was the mother to Emmett Hardy, a child prodigy and New Orleans jazz cornet musician, who entered a 1919 music contest where after long and intense struggle Hardy succeeded in outplaying Louis Armstrong) and William "Denis" Kennedy.
Kennedy was "an author, Irish poet, folk-lorist, interpreter of early African-American dialect, and book reviewer for the New York Times; a man of music—concert pianist, singer, composer, recorder and preservationist of "Negro spirituals"; a man of drama—actor and recitalist; a man of art—accomplished painter for self and friends; a man of business—accountant and antique
dealer in New York". *
In the Kennedy household, music was always in the air. His father, Dennis, was a gifted musician who loved playing Irish jigs on his fiddle for his family. He was later joined by another fiddler, William D. White, also a blacksmith from the village, who played German tunes. With the music playing, mother Elinor would sing and dance with the children and act out the actable old Irish songs such as "Johnny Sands" and others.
Emmet's life changed at the tender age of seven - the Sunday morning he first heard African-American spirituals sung ensemble at the New Hope Baptist Church on 7th Street. Emmet's childhood friends and playmates were Sammy and Johnny Sparks, sons of Aunt Julie Sparks (Julie's mother was Milleete Narcisse, formerly a slave on one of the plantations up-river from Gretna) who was one of the lead singers in the New Hope Baptist Church. The church was, and still is, on 7th Street, adjacent to the back yard of the Kennedy home.* After that introduction, he would stand "on a highchair in the kitchen door and looking out over the backyard, beyond which stands the little old church. The back window of the church is open, and through it the little boy is eagerly watching his playmates, Sammy and Johnny, who have gone to Sunday school with their mother. Aunt Julie is standing near the open window with her two sons, and their voices ring out with welling gladness as they sing the triumphant ‘shout' called ‘Free at Last.' The two little boys sing lustily, looking the while in the direction of the little white boy standing on his highchair in a transport of admiration, bravely trying to sing with them.*
This triumphant "shout" had been sung by the African-Americans since the days of slavery, but it was Kennedy who took the song down in writing and set it to
music before 1900. Note that the words of the first two lines are the words Martin Luther King, Jr., used in his famous "I have a dream" speech in August of 1963.
'Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty got
free at las'. Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty
got free at las'. Some come crip-ple an' some come lame
Thank God A'mighty got free at las'; Some come walkin' in my
Jes-us' name - Thank God A'mighty got free at las'.*
Through his life, "the one enduring fascination that captivated Emmet was his love of the "Negro spirituals" and dialect of the black people living in East Green, a black community in Gretna. East Green extended from Newton Street east to Richard Street, beyond a wide-open green expanse. The area included many white families up to at least what is now Fried Street, and the Kennedy home on 8th Street was in the center of East Green.
Emmet would be seen at every black wake, funeral, baptism, wedding, or special event at the New Hope Baptist Church, listening to the spirituals, or hymns, or "ballets" in simple form and writing the words down from the singing of the African-Americans. He would later set many of the spirituals to music for piano and voice—the first to do so in the East Green—and thereby initiating the preservation of many "Negro spirituals" and hymns that are still being sung in black churches throughout South Louisiana and in many other sections of the South."*
He became determined to preserve for the ages the simple life and character and folklore and music of the southern "negro". He moved to New York in 1923 to further what he thought might be a successful career as a concert pianist. He worked first as a book clerk at Scribner's, then operated an antique shop at 449 Park Avenue. Following the publication of his books Kennedy was eagerly sought as a lecturer on "Negro" music and folklore. While there, he published five books on African-American spirituals and dialect. This gained him nation-wide fame as author, folklorist, musician and composer.
His published books are (a few books are written in "Negro" dialect):
Black Cameos - 1924
Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers - 1925
From The Corner Table, New York, 1925
Runes and Cadences, Being Ancestral Memories of Old Heroic Days - 1925
Gritney People - 1927
Red Bean Row - 1929
More Mellows - 1931
Songs of An Alien Spirit - 1940 (his last published work - about mythology of the pagan Irish)
According to his death notice, Mr. Kennedy became ill in June (1941), and returned to New Orleans to visit a niece, Mrs. T. A. Humphreys, 2445 Gladiolus Street. In addition to Mrs. Humphrey's, he is survived by a sister, Lillian C. Hardy, two nephews, Hilton and Connell Hardy. A third nephew, the late Emmett Hardy, was one of the best known cornet interpretors of early New Orleans jazz; brother of the late Dennis Kennedy; aged 64 years; a native of Gretna and a resident of New York for 19 years.
His funeral will be conducted on November 23, 1941 at the Leitz-Eagan funeral home, 2512 Magazine street, with interment in the Hook and Ladder Cemetery, in Gretna.
*R. Emmet Kennedy (permanent) Exhibit at the Jefferson Parish Library, Gretna Branch located at 102 Willow Drive, Gretna, Louisiana - exhibit by Mr. J. B. Borel.
Emmett Hardy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 3.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 2.
R. Emmet Kennedy (as he was known), died of a heart attack while on a visit to New Orleans. He was in Max Samson's Drug Store at 117 Camp Street. He had walked into the store and asked a clerk for a pack of cigarettes; before he received them, he collapsed and was pronounced dead on the arrival of a Charity Hospital ambulance.
He was born on January 11, 1877 in Gretna, Louisiana, just a ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi River from New Orleans, to Dennis Kennedy and Elinor (Ellen) Dixon,
both Irish immigrants. Robert had five siblings - two who grew to adulthood. He was the youngest of the three siblings. The oldest, Lillian (who grew up to marry Harry H Hardy and was the mother to Emmett Hardy, a child prodigy and New Orleans jazz cornet musician, who entered a 1919 music contest where after long and intense struggle Hardy succeeded in outplaying Louis Armstrong) and William "Denis" Kennedy.
Kennedy was "an author, Irish poet, folk-lorist, interpreter of early African-American dialect, and book reviewer for the New York Times; a man of music—concert pianist, singer, composer, recorder and preservationist of "Negro spirituals"; a man of drama—actor and recitalist; a man of art—accomplished painter for self and friends; a man of business—accountant and antique
dealer in New York". *
In the Kennedy household, music was always in the air. His father, Dennis, was a gifted musician who loved playing Irish jigs on his fiddle for his family. He was later joined by another fiddler, William D. White, also a blacksmith from the village, who played German tunes. With the music playing, mother Elinor would sing and dance with the children and act out the actable old Irish songs such as "Johnny Sands" and others.
Emmet's life changed at the tender age of seven - the Sunday morning he first heard African-American spirituals sung ensemble at the New Hope Baptist Church on 7th Street. Emmet's childhood friends and playmates were Sammy and Johnny Sparks, sons of Aunt Julie Sparks (Julie's mother was Milleete Narcisse, formerly a slave on one of the plantations up-river from Gretna) who was one of the lead singers in the New Hope Baptist Church. The church was, and still is, on 7th Street, adjacent to the back yard of the Kennedy home.* After that introduction, he would stand "on a highchair in the kitchen door and looking out over the backyard, beyond which stands the little old church. The back window of the church is open, and through it the little boy is eagerly watching his playmates, Sammy and Johnny, who have gone to Sunday school with their mother. Aunt Julie is standing near the open window with her two sons, and their voices ring out with welling gladness as they sing the triumphant ‘shout' called ‘Free at Last.' The two little boys sing lustily, looking the while in the direction of the little white boy standing on his highchair in a transport of admiration, bravely trying to sing with them.*
This triumphant "shout" had been sung by the African-Americans since the days of slavery, but it was Kennedy who took the song down in writing and set it to
music before 1900. Note that the words of the first two lines are the words Martin Luther King, Jr., used in his famous "I have a dream" speech in August of 1963.
'Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty got
free at las'. Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty
got free at las'. Some come crip-ple an' some come lame
Thank God A'mighty got free at las'; Some come walkin' in my
Jes-us' name - Thank God A'mighty got free at las'.*
Through his life, "the one enduring fascination that captivated Emmet was his love of the "Negro spirituals" and dialect of the black people living in East Green, a black community in Gretna. East Green extended from Newton Street east to Richard Street, beyond a wide-open green expanse. The area included many white families up to at least what is now Fried Street, and the Kennedy home on 8th Street was in the center of East Green.
Emmet would be seen at every black wake, funeral, baptism, wedding, or special event at the New Hope Baptist Church, listening to the spirituals, or hymns, or "ballets" in simple form and writing the words down from the singing of the African-Americans. He would later set many of the spirituals to music for piano and voice—the first to do so in the East Green—and thereby initiating the preservation of many "Negro spirituals" and hymns that are still being sung in black churches throughout South Louisiana and in many other sections of the South."*
He became determined to preserve for the ages the simple life and character and folklore and music of the southern "negro". He moved to New York in 1923 to further what he thought might be a successful career as a concert pianist. He worked first as a book clerk at Scribner's, then operated an antique shop at 449 Park Avenue. Following the publication of his books Kennedy was eagerly sought as a lecturer on "Negro" music and folklore. While there, he published five books on African-American spirituals and dialect. This gained him nation-wide fame as author, folklorist, musician and composer.
His published books are (a few books are written in "Negro" dialect):
Black Cameos - 1924
Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers - 1925
From The Corner Table, New York, 1925
Runes and Cadences, Being Ancestral Memories of Old Heroic Days - 1925
Gritney People - 1927
Red Bean Row - 1929
More Mellows - 1931
Songs of An Alien Spirit - 1940 (his last published work - about mythology of the pagan Irish)
According to his death notice, Mr. Kennedy became ill in June (1941), and returned to New Orleans to visit a niece, Mrs. T. A. Humphreys, 2445 Gladiolus Street. In addition to Mrs. Humphrey's, he is survived by a sister, Lillian C. Hardy, two nephews, Hilton and Connell Hardy. A third nephew, the late Emmett Hardy, was one of the best known cornet interpretors of early New Orleans jazz; brother of the late Dennis Kennedy; aged 64 years; a native of Gretna and a resident of New York for 19 years.
His funeral will be conducted on November 23, 1941 at the Leitz-Eagan funeral home, 2512 Magazine street, with interment in the Hook and Ladder Cemetery, in Gretna.
*R. Emmet Kennedy (permanent) Exhibit at the Jefferson Parish Library, Gretna Branch located at 102 Willow Drive, Gretna, Louisiana - exhibit by Mr. J. B. Borel.
Emmett Hardy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 3.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 2.
He was born on January 11, 1877 in Gretna, Louisiana, just a ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi River from New Orleans, to Dennis Kennedy and Elinor (Ellen) Dixon,
both Irish immigrants. Robert had five siblings - two who grew to adulthood. He was the youngest of the three siblings. The oldest, Lillian (who grew up to marry Harry H Hardy and was the mother to Emmett Hardy, a child prodigy and New Orleans jazz cornet musician, who entered a 1919 music contest where after long and intense struggle Hardy succeeded in outplaying Louis Armstrong) and William "Denis" Kennedy.
Kennedy was "an author, Irish poet, folk-lorist, interpreter of early African-American dialect, and book reviewer for the New York Times; a man of music—concert pianist, singer, composer, recorder and preservationist of "Negro spirituals"; a man of drama—actor and recitalist; a man of art—accomplished painter for self and friends; a man of business—accountant and antique
dealer in New York". *
In the Kennedy household, music was always in the air. His father, Dennis, was a gifted musician who loved playing Irish jigs on his fiddle for his family. He was later joined by another fiddler, William D. White, also a blacksmith from the village, who played German tunes. With the music playing, mother Elinor would sing and dance with the children and act out the actable old Irish songs such as "Johnny Sands" and others.
Emmet's life changed at the tender age of seven - the Sunday morning he first heard African-American spirituals sung ensemble at the New Hope Baptist Church on 7th Street. Emmet's childhood friends and playmates were Sammy and Johnny Sparks, sons of Aunt Julie Sparks (Julie's mother was Milleete Narcisse, formerly a slave on one of the plantations up-river from Gretna) who was one of the lead singers in the New Hope Baptist Church. The church was, and still is, on 7th Street, adjacent to the back yard of the Kennedy home.* After that introduction, he would stand "on a highchair in the kitchen door and looking out over the backyard, beyond which stands the little old church. The back window of the church is open, and through it the little boy is eagerly watching his playmates, Sammy and Johnny, who have gone to Sunday school with their mother. Aunt Julie is standing near the open window with her two sons, and their voices ring out with welling gladness as they sing the triumphant ‘shout' called ‘Free at Last.' The two little boys sing lustily, looking the while in the direction of the little white boy standing on his highchair in a transport of admiration, bravely trying to sing with them.*
This triumphant "shout" had been sung by the African-Americans since the days of slavery, but it was Kennedy who took the song down in writing and set it to
music before 1900. Note that the words of the first two lines are the words Martin Luther King, Jr., used in his famous "I have a dream" speech in August of 1963.
'Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty got
free at las'. Free at las', free at las', Thank God A'mighty
got free at las'. Some come crip-ple an' some come lame
Thank God A'mighty got free at las'; Some come walkin' in my
Jes-us' name - Thank God A'mighty got free at las'.*
Through his life, "the one enduring fascination that captivated Emmet was his love of the "Negro spirituals" and dialect of the black people living in East Green, a black community in Gretna. East Green extended from Newton Street east to Richard Street, beyond a wide-open green expanse. The area included many white families up to at least what is now Fried Street, and the Kennedy home on 8th Street was in the center of East Green.
Emmet would be seen at every black wake, funeral, baptism, wedding, or special event at the New Hope Baptist Church, listening to the spirituals, or hymns, or "ballets" in simple form and writing the words down from the singing of the African-Americans. He would later set many of the spirituals to music for piano and voice—the first to do so in the East Green—and thereby initiating the preservation of many "Negro spirituals" and hymns that are still being sung in black churches throughout South Louisiana and in many other sections of the South."*
He became determined to preserve for the ages the simple life and character and folklore and music of the southern "negro". He moved to New York in 1923 to further what he thought might be a successful career as a concert pianist. He worked first as a book clerk at Scribner's, then operated an antique shop at 449 Park Avenue. Following the publication of his books Kennedy was eagerly sought as a lecturer on "Negro" music and folklore. While there, he published five books on African-American spirituals and dialect. This gained him nation-wide fame as author, folklorist, musician and composer.
His published books are (a few books are written in "Negro" dialect):
Black Cameos - 1924
Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers - 1925
From The Corner Table, New York, 1925
Runes and Cadences, Being Ancestral Memories of Old Heroic Days - 1925
Gritney People - 1927
Red Bean Row - 1929
More Mellows - 1931
Songs of An Alien Spirit - 1940 (his last published work - about mythology of the pagan Irish)
According to his death notice, Mr. Kennedy became ill in June (1941), and returned to New Orleans to visit a niece, Mrs. T. A. Humphreys, 2445 Gladiolus Street. In addition to Mrs. Humphrey's, he is survived by a sister, Lillian C. Hardy, two nephews, Hilton and Connell Hardy. A third nephew, the late Emmett Hardy, was one of the best known cornet interpretors of early New Orleans jazz; brother of the late Dennis Kennedy; aged 64 years; a native of Gretna and a resident of New York for 19 years.
His funeral will be conducted on November 23, 1941 at the Leitz-Eagan funeral home, 2512 Magazine street, with interment in the Hook and Ladder Cemetery, in Gretna.
*R. Emmet Kennedy (permanent) Exhibit at the Jefferson Parish Library, Gretna Branch located at 102 Willow Drive, Gretna, Louisiana - exhibit by Mr. J. B. Borel.
Emmett Hardy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 3.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Saturday, November 22, 1941, Page: 2.
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