KENNEDY - Elizabeth - 1900 - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

In the early hours of Wednesday morning Elizabeth Talbot Kennedy passed peacefully away. Her death was not unexpected but at the last came swiftly and suddenly. That her life should have ended at the close of the Eastertide is peculiarly sad, yet comfortingly significant. It was a season in which she took great pleasure, aside from its sacred associations. She always made it a time of joy to the children she loved by remembering them with gifts and on the Easter just passed, though feeble and sick, did not fail them.

Betty Kennedy, as she was familiarly known among her intimates, was born in Danville, Ind., and was brought to Crawfordsville when a little child. She was educated in the public schools of this city and graduated in the first class, all of whom were girls. As a pupil she was noted for her thorough scholarship and prompt and cheerful observance of all her duties. She is the second of her class to die, the first having passed away within a year after graduation.

Some years ago she united with the First Methodist Church during Mr. Switzer’s incumbency, and she took the deepest interest in her church life. Hers was an eminently reverent and thoughtful mind, although she was not given to many words on religious themes except to those who were most intimate. Her piety was of service rather than of speech, and was proven rather by deeds than by words. Her views of life were most happy and cheerful, and she was mercifully spared the days, that come to some, when she could take no pleasure in them. Her life was one of willing, joyful service; she spent herself freely for her family and friends. They seemed always in her mind and not one was forgotten or overlooked in these last days of weakness and pain. Her character was frank and honorable, generous and refined. She was one of the pure in heart, and truthful and artless to an eminent degree. She rarely, if ever, forced her opinion on one, but when it was demanded it was given candidly and fearlessly and could be relied on as the exact truth. By nature she was sprightly and cheerful with that glowing geniality which comforts like sunshine, and in her long period of illness she rarely lost her happy serenity. Her social qualities were of the highest order; as a hostess she had few equals, and her home was one of the pleasantest of places to visit, for she loved her kind and delighted in their company. In the relation of daughter, sister, friend, she was faithful, tender and kind. Her obedience and duteousness to her parents will linger after her departure with the sacred fragrance which hung about the broken alabaster box. Her brothers and sisters will remember always the generosity and sympathy of Betty; her friends will think of her as loyal and devoted, and when one has lived in such a manner as to leave these precious memories behind she may be said to have lived a good life.