Elsie Lavern Kennedy

ELSIE LAVERN KENNEDY Funeral services for lifelong Mancos resident Elsie LaVern Kennedy will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 20 at the Ertel Memorial Chapel. Interment will follow at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Reverend Bud Rousset will officiate. Visitation has been set for Monday morning at Ertel Chapel from 9 a.m. until service time. Elsie LaVern Kennedy was born to David and Grace (Thomas) Swenk on July 29, 1927 in Cortez, Colo. She departed this life on January 14, 2014, at the age of 86. Spending time in the mountains was a constant pleasure for LaVern and Edward, her husband of 65 years. Picnics with the family, gold panning, color rides, mushroom and berry hunting were their favorite activities. She was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution and Eastern Star. Every marriage of her sons brought a daughter into her life, not just a daughter in law. Every one of them was considered a distinct member of the family. She looked forward to the birth of every great grandchild, which now totals 36. She remembered a story about every one of her 14 grandchildren and enjoyed telling them to remind them of how they grew up. Breakfast for overnight grandchildren typically consisted of a grapefruit and Grapenuts and she also kept the pantry well stocked with olives and pickles to open when the grandchildren came to visit. She enjoyed hand crafts including crochet, ceramics and needlework. She loved to garden and had a wonderful green thumb. She could simply scatter seeds and they would almost magically sprout. She enjoyed her houseplants, especially her orchids. She happily shared her years of life wisdom of vegetable gardening to anyone that was interested and never complained that she was unable to put up blackberry jam because her grandchildren always cleaned off the vines before she could pick them. She was an excellent cook, but her roasts brought down the house. She canned as long as she could and then passed the tradition and taught the next generation to put up their food. LaVern was a cook for the Mancos schools and then the Aneth Boarding school until they retired. LaVern was preceded in death by her husband, Edward; her oldest son, Ronald; daughter-in-law, Eileen Kennedy; granddaughter, Gena Kennedy and granddaughter, Darcy Kennedy. She is survived by her sister, Mary Lou Hall and Ace of Durango; daughter-in-law, Linda Kennedy of Price, Utah; by her sons, Walter and wife, Ana Maria of Aurora, Colo., James and wife, Tammy of Bloomfield, N.M., and Gary and wife, Catherine of Mancos; and grandchildren, Charlotte Olson, Shirley Barson, Cynthia Williams, Rondalyn Kennedy, JaLeen Kennedy, Wade Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Christina Thrasher, Grace Kennedy, Amanda Olive, Cassandra Hergert, and Eduardo and Maria Lizet. She is also survived by numerous great grandchildren. Edward and LaVern were under the loving dedicated care of Lorna Ristau, Verna Jowell and Rosie Jones.