Elizabeth Phillips Kenna, known as Betty, died July 13, 2018, in her home at Edgewood Summit, a retirement community in Charleston, WV. She was 92.
She was born September 8, 1925, in Tientsin (now Tianjin), China, where her father was stationed in U.S. Army Intelligence, to Colonel Walter C. Phillips (from Buckhannon, WV) and Ruth Edward Mohler Phillips (from St Albans, WV).
She proudly referred to herself as an "Army brat," as her family was transferred nearly every two years and she grew up all over the United States. This experience influenced her and gave her the independence, confidence and competitive spirit that characterized her life. With each move, she was tested in a new school system and advanced in grade, with the result that she graduated high school at the age of 16, two years ahead of her peers.
She attended private school in Brooklyn, NY, when her father was stationed at Fort Hamilton, NY, and enjoyed taking the subway with her friends to New York City and Coney Island at a time when New York was a much safer place for teenagers to explore on their own. When her father was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as General Walter Short's Chief of Staff, she attended Stuart Hall preparatory school in Staunton, VA, and was named "most athletic" upon graduation.
She was a freshman at the University of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. With her Mother, brother Phil (Walter C. Phillips Jr.), and other military families, she spent the nights following the attack in underground tunnels to ensure their safety in the event of invasion. During the day, she assisted hospital personnel treating those burned and wounded in the attack. The Charleston Gazette-Mail published several accounts of her experiences as a Pearl Harbor survivor.
In January of 1942, she moved with her mother to Charleston, WV, and lived in apartments then owned by the Mohler Family on Kanawha Blvd. While attending First Presbyterian Church, she met Lee Mountcastle Kenna, who would become her husband. They married June 12, 1944, and moved to Minnesota, where he attended Japanese Language School in preparation for the Allies' invasion of Japan; he later served as an interpreter in support of the Japanese War Crimes Trials.
While Lee was stationed in Japan, she attended Hollins University, in Roanoke, VA. Initially, she studied Physics and Mathematics, but ultimately graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. It was at Hollins that she began studying art and painting, which would become her lifelong passion.
While her husband was overseas, she gave birth to their first son, (Lee Mountcastle Jr.), bought their first house and joined the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, WV. After the war, three more children were born, (Carolyn Perry, Katherine Phillips and Joseph Edward).
While raising their family in Charleston, Mrs. Kenna devoted herself to athletics and community leadership. A natural athlete and competitive amateur tennis player, she won numerous women's singles and doubles titles at Edgewood Country Club, the City of Charleston, and Kanawha County. She served as President of the Junior League of Charleston and initiated and co-chaired the first WV State Conference on Voluntarism. She also served as President of the Children's Museum at Sunrise, President of the Children's Home Society of WV, and President of the Kanawha Valley Senior Services. She became the First President of the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council and was a member of the Rock Hill Garden Club.
Mrs. Kenna served as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Mohler Lumber Company for a number of years. She also actively supported her husband's political campaigns, ultimately traveling the state in support of his unsuccessful campaign for Governor in 1972.
When Lee retired from practicing law in 1984, they bought a home in Bears Paw Country Club in Naples, Florida, where they spent the winters. Although she took up golf late in life, she competed successfully in club and WV State Tournaments against women many years younger than she.
After Lee's death in 1997, she moved to Edgewood Summit and focused on developing her skills as an artist. She took many painting classes, both in Naples, Florida, and from instructors who came to teach in the Edgewood Summit Art Studio. One of her paintings, entitled "Lee's Gardenia" was awarded a prize at a juried competition at the Van Leibig Art Center in Naples. Her body of work ranged from life studies and sculpture to portraits, and pastel and oil paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers and trees. Overall, she completed nearly 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited at Edgewood Summit and have been given to her children and grandchildren. Her children compiled a composite of her work and published it in a book they presented to her shortly before her death.
In Charleston, she was a long-term member of the First Presbyterian Church, Edgewood Country Club, The Clay Center (and a member of the Collectors Club), the Charleston Light Opera Guild, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
In Naples, she was a member of the Moorings Presbyterian Church, Bears Paw Country Club, the Naples Philharmonic and the Naples Museum of Art.
She also served on the Alumni Board, and as an Alumni Trustee for Hollins University.
In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her husband, Lee M. Kenna, and her brother, Walter C. Phillips Jr.
When asked about her life, she said that of all she had done, she was proudest of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and took pleasure in watching their growth, development and success. She wanted to make sure that they were aware of and appreciated their West Virginia heritage. For her 85th birthday, she hosted them all aboard a riverboat during Charleston's Labor Day Sternwheel Regatta, scheduled visits to many of Charleston's cultural and civic attractions, and arranged tours of three former Kenna / Phillips homes: "High Grove," the historic landmarked home of William E. Mohler and Walter C. Phillips in St. Albans; the former Kenna Family home overlooking Charleston on Ashby Avenue in Fort Hill; and the former home of Judge Jo N. and Louise M. Kenna on Swarthmore Avenue in Edgewood. And to reinforce the importance she placed on her family continuing to stay in touch, for her 90th birthday, she hosted them all for a weekend celebration at the Greenbrier, followed by a reception with her many friends at Edgewood Summit.
Her four children are Lee Mountcastle Kenna (Cachi) from Atherton, CA; Carolyn Tierney Griesemer (Jim) from Denver, CO; Katherine Kenna Dodd Combs (Gerry) from West Palm Beach, FL; and Joseph Edward Kenna from Atlanta, GA.
Her 10 grandchildren are Lee Ravenet (Randy) Kenna (Laura); Brian Mountcastle Kenna (Ingrid); Christine Marguerite Perez - Jacome Kenna (Alberto); Lewis Clark Tierney III (Collette); Lee Mountcastle Kenna Tierney; Christopher Scott Tierney (Sara); Lauren Elizabeth Dodd; Allison Mountcastle Dodd, Dallas Yancey Kenna and John Edward Kenna (Mackenzie).
Her 12 great - grandchildren are Ruby Estelle, Ephram Joseph and Maximo Isaac Kenna; Isabella Brigit and Anja Ravenet Kenna; Alberto, Nicolas Eduardo and Lucia Elizabeth Perez - Jacome Kenna; Ava Rose Tierney; and Channing Elizabeth, Campbell Clark and Maris Latterman Tierney.
A team of exceptional caregivers managed Betty's last four years with great warmth, patience, kindness, professional skill and unfailing devotion. The Kenna Family will be forever grateful for the love and extraordinary care they provided her: Darlene (Dee) Blackhurst, Gunna Early, Tammy Byrd, Cosetta (Cosi) Chadwick, Brenda Fowler and Morgan Isaacs. The family also wishes to thank Hospice Care of WV for the invaluable service they provided in her last days.
A memorial service will be held in late August at the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, with a reception to follow at Edgewood Summit. Interment will be at Sunset Memorial Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that those who wish to make a contribution donate in her honor to Hollins University, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA 24020; First Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301 or The Clay Center, 1 Clay Square, Charleston, WV 25301.
You may send condolences to the family at www.barlowbonsall.com.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Barlow-Bonsall Funeral Home in Charleston, WV.
Charleston Gazette Mail Innerviews Article By Sandy Wells 2014.
Forget Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Engine That Could. One special story meant more to her children and grandchildren than all the rest.
Granmom, please tell me about Pearl Harbor!
So she would tell them, again and again. Finally, Betty Kenna wrote it down for them, in longhand on a legal pad.
Shes 89, but the frightening words her father shouted 73 years ago in Hawaii echo in her mind as if shed just heard them: Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor!
Her father was an Army colonel, chief of staff to the commanding general in Hawaii. Betty Kenna was a freshman at the University of Hawaii that dreadful Day of Infamy in 1941. She went dancing the night before in Honolulu. I was having the time of my life, she said.
She had no clue about the ordeal she would face the next day.
Eventually, she returned to West Virginia, married lawyer Lee Kenna, plunged into community involvements, the mothering of four children and her growing passion for painting.
Much has happened since her momentous stay in Hawaii. But her experience there, those scary days in the tunnel, digging the latrine, flying home on the floor of a blacked-out plane, well, thats a memory for the books, storytime stuff for sure.
Im an Army brat. I grew up all over the country. I was born in China where my father was with military intelligence. We moved about every two years. Every time, it was a different school system. I got two years ahead of myself in school.
My mother was Ruth Mohler from St. Albans. My father was Walter C. Phillips from Buckhannon. He joined the service right after World War I. He met mother through her brother, a fraternity brother at West Virginia.
My father was Gen. [Walter] Shorts chief of staff in New York. We were stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, headquarters of the First Army Division. My parents loved that assignment, but Gen. Marshall insisted that Short take this Hawaiian command because they were so understaffed.
I was in private school in Brooklyn when they got this order to go to Hawaii. They had to go right away, about six months before I could finish school.
They sent me to Stuart Hall in Staunton, Virginia, a girls boarding school where they knew I would be safe. When I graduated, an aunt took me by boat to Hawaii. Thats the way everyone went to and from the islands. They didnt have commercial airplanes.
We lived in commander quarters at Fort Shafter on Oahu, right between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.
The night of Dec. 6, 1941, I had a date with a young ensign at a dinner party at the Royal Hawaiian, and we danced until midnight. Mother and father were at Scofield Barracks, the largest Army post, at an official function with the Shorts.
We all went to bed. The next thing I heard was early that morning. Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor! My father dashed down the stairs to go to headquarters.
He called back a half hour later and said to get dressed and get a blanket and a pillow and nothing else, that an Army truck would be there to take us to the tunnels in the mountains. All families of military personnel were taken to these tunnels.
We were shocked. We went in this old Army truck with a canvas top and wooden benches and our blanket and pillow, and they took us to these bare tunnels with nothing but dirt on the floor and rock overhead.
In the Army, when wives are separate from their husbands, the wives assume the same rank as their husbands. So Mrs. Short was in charge of the ladies in these tunnels.
The military there had been warned by telegram to be on constant alert for internal sabotage. The ships in the harbor were tied two by two and all bridges had guards on them. The minute the bombing started, they thought it was preparatory for an invasion, which is why they moved us to the tunnel. All the military went out to the beaches with barbed wire and fortifications to defend from an invasion by the Japanese.
We were in the tunnels for three days. Nothing but dirt and rock. After a half hour, an Army truck brought loaves of bread and 5 gallon containers of peanut butter and jelly. And Nehi soda. That was our meal for three days and nights.
General Shorts wife wasnt very organized and she asked my mother to take over. The first thing we had to do was build a latrine. Here were hundreds of women and children and old men and no bathroom.
Mother commanded the forces to dig a ditch at the back of the tunnel with sticks. We laid lumber on both sides and people who had extra blankets hung those over the lumber for privacy. You squatted over the ditch.
An old man died and two babies were born, and we did all this on our own. The whole time, we had no idea what was going on. We did get word that there was no invasion, which is what we were getting saved from.
At the end of the third day, representatives from Tripler General Hospital came wanting volunteers. So many sailors swimming through the water had been terribly burned and had schrapnel wounds. The oil from the ships caught fire and the water was aflame, and they had to swim through that to get to land if they got out of the bombed boat.
I went immediately to the hospital and held trays for the doctors.
The first few days I was nauseated. The patients were the worst looking things you ever saw. Where shrapnel went in was a big gaping hole, and their legs were swollen. I finally got it together and stayed two weeks.
They transferred me to the gangrene unit. When they discovered I wasnt a nurse, they sent me home to our headquarters. The town was black. Nobody was out. We stayed in the basement and sat around the radio. We had blankets over all the windows. We heard over the radio that Roosevelt had declared war.
Our Japanese maid sat with us in her kimono. She cooked meals for us in the daytime. We looked askance at each other. After a week, they said foreign servants would not be allowed on the post. We never found out what happened to her.
Our Christmas tree was a small potted palm from the front porch with no decorations or gifts.
She was born September 8, 1925, in Tientsin (now Tianjin), China, where her father was stationed in U.S. Army Intelligence, to Colonel Walter C. Phillips (from Buckhannon, WV) and Ruth Edward Mohler Phillips (from St Albans, WV).
She proudly referred to herself as an "Army brat," as her family was transferred nearly every two years and she grew up all over the United States. This experience influenced her and gave her the independence, confidence and competitive spirit that characterized her life. With each move, she was tested in a new school system and advanced in grade, with the result that she graduated high school at the age of 16, two years ahead of her peers.
She attended private school in Brooklyn, NY, when her father was stationed at Fort Hamilton, NY, and enjoyed taking the subway with her friends to New York City and Coney Island at a time when New York was a much safer place for teenagers to explore on their own. When her father was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as General Walter Short's Chief of Staff, she attended Stuart Hall preparatory school in Staunton, VA, and was named "most athletic" upon graduation.
She was a freshman at the University of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. With her Mother, brother Phil (Walter C. Phillips Jr.), and other military families, she spent the nights following the attack in underground tunnels to ensure their safety in the event of invasion. During the day, she assisted hospital personnel treating those burned and wounded in the attack. The Charleston Gazette-Mail published several accounts of her experiences as a Pearl Harbor survivor.
In January of 1942, she moved with her mother to Charleston, WV, and lived in apartments then owned by the Mohler Family on Kanawha Blvd. While attending First Presbyterian Church, she met Lee Mountcastle Kenna, who would become her husband. They married June 12, 1944, and moved to Minnesota, where he attended Japanese Language School in preparation for the Allies' invasion of Japan; he later served as an interpreter in support of the Japanese War Crimes Trials.
While Lee was stationed in Japan, she attended Hollins University, in Roanoke, VA. Initially, she studied Physics and Mathematics, but ultimately graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. It was at Hollins that she began studying art and painting, which would become her lifelong passion.
While her husband was overseas, she gave birth to their first son, (Lee Mountcastle Jr.), bought their first house and joined the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, WV. After the war, three more children were born, (Carolyn Perry, Katherine Phillips and Joseph Edward).
While raising their family in Charleston, Mrs. Kenna devoted herself to athletics and community leadership. A natural athlete and competitive amateur tennis player, she won numerous women's singles and doubles titles at Edgewood Country Club, the City of Charleston, and Kanawha County. She served as President of the Junior League of Charleston and initiated and co-chaired the first WV State Conference on Voluntarism. She also served as President of the Children's Museum at Sunrise, President of the Children's Home Society of WV, and President of the Kanawha Valley Senior Services. She became the First President of the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council and was a member of the Rock Hill Garden Club.
Mrs. Kenna served as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Mohler Lumber Company for a number of years. She also actively supported her husband's political campaigns, ultimately traveling the state in support of his unsuccessful campaign for Governor in 1972.
When Lee retired from practicing law in 1984, they bought a home in Bears Paw Country Club in Naples, Florida, where they spent the winters. Although she took up golf late in life, she competed successfully in club and WV State Tournaments against women many years younger than she.
After Lee's death in 1997, she moved to Edgewood Summit and focused on developing her skills as an artist. She took many painting classes, both in Naples, Florida, and from instructors who came to teach in the Edgewood Summit Art Studio. One of her paintings, entitled "Lee's Gardenia" was awarded a prize at a juried competition at the Van Leibig Art Center in Naples. Her body of work ranged from life studies and sculpture to portraits, and pastel and oil paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers and trees. Overall, she completed nearly 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited at Edgewood Summit and have been given to her children and grandchildren. Her children compiled a composite of her work and published it in a book they presented to her shortly before her death.
In Charleston, she was a long-term member of the First Presbyterian Church, Edgewood Country Club, The Clay Center (and a member of the Collectors Club), the Charleston Light Opera Guild, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
In Naples, she was a member of the Moorings Presbyterian Church, Bears Paw Country Club, the Naples Philharmonic and the Naples Museum of Art.
She also served on the Alumni Board, and as an Alumni Trustee for Hollins University.
In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her husband, Lee M. Kenna, and her brother, Walter C. Phillips Jr.
When asked about her life, she said that of all she had done, she was proudest of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and took pleasure in watching their growth, development and success. She wanted to make sure that they were aware of and appreciated their West Virginia heritage. For her 85th birthday, she hosted them all aboard a riverboat during Charleston's Labor Day Sternwheel Regatta, scheduled visits to many of Charleston's cultural and civic attractions, and arranged tours of three former Kenna / Phillips homes: "High Grove," the historic landmarked home of William E. Mohler and Walter C. Phillips in St. Albans; the former Kenna Family home overlooking Charleston on Ashby Avenue in Fort Hill; and the former home of Judge Jo N. and Louise M. Kenna on Swarthmore Avenue in Edgewood. And to reinforce the importance she placed on her family continuing to stay in touch, for her 90th birthday, she hosted them all for a weekend celebration at the Greenbrier, followed by a reception with her many friends at Edgewood Summit.
Her four children are Lee Mountcastle Kenna (Cachi) from Atherton, CA; Carolyn Tierney Griesemer (Jim) from Denver, CO; Katherine Kenna Dodd Combs (Gerry) from West Palm Beach, FL; and Joseph Edward Kenna from Atlanta, GA.
Her 10 grandchildren are Lee Ravenet (Randy) Kenna (Laura); Brian Mountcastle Kenna (Ingrid); Christine Marguerite Perez - Jacome Kenna (Alberto); Lewis Clark Tierney III (Collette); Lee Mountcastle Kenna Tierney; Christopher Scott Tierney (Sara); Lauren Elizabeth Dodd; Allison Mountcastle Dodd, Dallas Yancey Kenna and John Edward Kenna (Mackenzie).
Her 12 great - grandchildren are Ruby Estelle, Ephram Joseph and Maximo Isaac Kenna; Isabella Brigit and Anja Ravenet Kenna; Alberto, Nicolas Eduardo and Lucia Elizabeth Perez - Jacome Kenna; Ava Rose Tierney; and Channing Elizabeth, Campbell Clark and Maris Latterman Tierney.
A team of exceptional caregivers managed Betty's last four years with great warmth, patience, kindness, professional skill and unfailing devotion. The Kenna Family will be forever grateful for the love and extraordinary care they provided her: Darlene (Dee) Blackhurst, Gunna Early, Tammy Byrd, Cosetta (Cosi) Chadwick, Brenda Fowler and Morgan Isaacs. The family also wishes to thank Hospice Care of WV for the invaluable service they provided in her last days.
A memorial service will be held in late August at the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, with a reception to follow at Edgewood Summit. Interment will be at Sunset Memorial Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that those who wish to make a contribution donate in her honor to Hollins University, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA 24020; First Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301 or The Clay Center, 1 Clay Square, Charleston, WV 25301.
You may send condolences to the family at www.barlowbonsall.com.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Barlow-Bonsall Funeral Home in Charleston, WV.
Charleston Gazette Mail Innerviews Article By Sandy Wells 2014.
Forget Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Engine That Could. One special story meant more to her children and grandchildren than all the rest.
Granmom, please tell me about Pearl Harbor!
So she would tell them, again and again. Finally, Betty Kenna wrote it down for them, in longhand on a legal pad.
Shes 89, but the frightening words her father shouted 73 years ago in Hawaii echo in her mind as if shed just heard them: Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor!
Her father was an Army colonel, chief of staff to the commanding general in Hawaii. Betty Kenna was a freshman at the University of Hawaii that dreadful Day of Infamy in 1941. She went dancing the night before in Honolulu. I was having the time of my life, she said.
She had no clue about the ordeal she would face the next day.
Eventually, she returned to West Virginia, married lawyer Lee Kenna, plunged into community involvements, the mothering of four children and her growing passion for painting.
Much has happened since her momentous stay in Hawaii. But her experience there, those scary days in the tunnel, digging the latrine, flying home on the floor of a blacked-out plane, well, thats a memory for the books, storytime stuff for sure.
Im an Army brat. I grew up all over the country. I was born in China where my father was with military intelligence. We moved about every two years. Every time, it was a different school system. I got two years ahead of myself in school.
My mother was Ruth Mohler from St. Albans. My father was Walter C. Phillips from Buckhannon. He joined the service right after World War I. He met mother through her brother, a fraternity brother at West Virginia.
My father was Gen. [Walter] Shorts chief of staff in New York. We were stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, headquarters of the First Army Division. My parents loved that assignment, but Gen. Marshall insisted that Short take this Hawaiian command because they were so understaffed.
I was in private school in Brooklyn when they got this order to go to Hawaii. They had to go right away, about six months before I could finish school.
They sent me to Stuart Hall in Staunton, Virginia, a girls boarding school where they knew I would be safe. When I graduated, an aunt took me by boat to Hawaii. Thats the way everyone went to and from the islands. They didnt have commercial airplanes.
We lived in commander quarters at Fort Shafter on Oahu, right between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.
The night of Dec. 6, 1941, I had a date with a young ensign at a dinner party at the Royal Hawaiian, and we danced until midnight. Mother and father were at Scofield Barracks, the largest Army post, at an official function with the Shorts.
We all went to bed. The next thing I heard was early that morning. Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor! My father dashed down the stairs to go to headquarters.
He called back a half hour later and said to get dressed and get a blanket and a pillow and nothing else, that an Army truck would be there to take us to the tunnels in the mountains. All families of military personnel were taken to these tunnels.
We were shocked. We went in this old Army truck with a canvas top and wooden benches and our blanket and pillow, and they took us to these bare tunnels with nothing but dirt on the floor and rock overhead.
In the Army, when wives are separate from their husbands, the wives assume the same rank as their husbands. So Mrs. Short was in charge of the ladies in these tunnels.
The military there had been warned by telegram to be on constant alert for internal sabotage. The ships in the harbor were tied two by two and all bridges had guards on them. The minute the bombing started, they thought it was preparatory for an invasion, which is why they moved us to the tunnel. All the military went out to the beaches with barbed wire and fortifications to defend from an invasion by the Japanese.
We were in the tunnels for three days. Nothing but dirt and rock. After a half hour, an Army truck brought loaves of bread and 5 gallon containers of peanut butter and jelly. And Nehi soda. That was our meal for three days and nights.
General Shorts wife wasnt very organized and she asked my mother to take over. The first thing we had to do was build a latrine. Here were hundreds of women and children and old men and no bathroom.
Mother commanded the forces to dig a ditch at the back of the tunnel with sticks. We laid lumber on both sides and people who had extra blankets hung those over the lumber for privacy. You squatted over the ditch.
An old man died and two babies were born, and we did all this on our own. The whole time, we had no idea what was going on. We did get word that there was no invasion, which is what we were getting saved from.
At the end of the third day, representatives from Tripler General Hospital came wanting volunteers. So many sailors swimming through the water had been terribly burned and had schrapnel wounds. The oil from the ships caught fire and the water was aflame, and they had to swim through that to get to land if they got out of the bombed boat.
I went immediately to the hospital and held trays for the doctors.
The first few days I was nauseated. The patients were the worst looking things you ever saw. Where shrapnel went in was a big gaping hole, and their legs were swollen. I finally got it together and stayed two weeks.
They transferred me to the gangrene unit. When they discovered I wasnt a nurse, they sent me home to our headquarters. The town was black. Nobody was out. We stayed in the basement and sat around the radio. We had blankets over all the windows. We heard over the radio that Roosevelt had declared war.
Our Japanese maid sat with us in her kimono. She cooked meals for us in the daytime. We looked askance at each other. After a week, they said foreign servants would not be allowed on the post. We never found out what happened to her.
Our Christmas tree was a small potted palm from the front porch with no decorations or gifts.
Elizabeth Phillips Kenna, known as Betty, died July 13, 2018, in her home at Edgewood Summit, a retirement community in Charleston, WV. She was 92.
She was born September 8, 1925, in Tientsin (now Tianjin), China, where her father was stationed in U.S. Army Intelligence, to Colonel Walter C. Phillips (from Buckhannon, WV) and Ruth Edward Mohler Phillips (from St Albans, WV).
She proudly referred to herself as an "Army brat," as her family was transferred nearly every two years and she grew up all over the United States. This experience influenced her and gave her the independence, confidence and competitive spirit that characterized her life. With each move, she was tested in a new school system and advanced in grade, with the result that she graduated high school at the age of 16, two years ahead of her peers.
She attended private school in Brooklyn, NY, when her father was stationed at Fort Hamilton, NY, and enjoyed taking the subway with her friends to New York City and Coney Island at a time when New York was a much safer place for teenagers to explore on their own. When her father was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as General Walter Short's Chief of Staff, she attended Stuart Hall preparatory school in Staunton, VA, and was named "most athletic" upon graduation.
She was a freshman at the University of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. With her Mother, brother Phil (Walter C. Phillips Jr.), and other military families, she spent the nights following the attack in underground tunnels to ensure their safety in the event of invasion. During the day, she assisted hospital personnel treating those burned and wounded in the attack. The Charleston Gazette-Mail published several accounts of her experiences as a Pearl Harbor survivor.
In January of 1942, she moved with her mother to Charleston, WV, and lived in apartments then owned by the Mohler Family on Kanawha Blvd. While attending First Presbyterian Church, she met Lee Mountcastle Kenna, who would become her husband. They married June 12, 1944, and moved to Minnesota, where he attended Japanese Language School in preparation for the Allies' invasion of Japan; he later served as an interpreter in support of the Japanese War Crimes Trials.
While Lee was stationed in Japan, she attended Hollins University, in Roanoke, VA. Initially, she studied Physics and Mathematics, but ultimately graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. It was at Hollins that she began studying art and painting, which would become her lifelong passion.
While her husband was overseas, she gave birth to their first son, (Lee Mountcastle Jr.), bought their first house and joined the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, WV. After the war, three more children were born, (Carolyn Perry, Katherine Phillips and Joseph Edward).
While raising their family in Charleston, Mrs. Kenna devoted herself to athletics and community leadership. A natural athlete and competitive amateur tennis player, she won numerous women's singles and doubles titles at Edgewood Country Club, the City of Charleston, and Kanawha County. She served as President of the Junior League of Charleston and initiated and co-chaired the first WV State Conference on Voluntarism. She also served as President of the Children's Museum at Sunrise, President of the Children's Home Society of WV, and President of the Kanawha Valley Senior Services. She became the First President of the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council and was a member of the Rock Hill Garden Club.
Mrs. Kenna served as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Mohler Lumber Company for a number of years. She also actively supported her husband's political campaigns, ultimately traveling the state in support of his unsuccessful campaign for Governor in 1972.
When Lee retired from practicing law in 1984, they bought a home in Bears Paw Country Club in Naples, Florida, where they spent the winters. Although she took up golf late in life, she competed successfully in club and WV State Tournaments against women many years younger than she.
After Lee's death in 1997, she moved to Edgewood Summit and focused on developing her skills as an artist. She took many painting classes, both in Naples, Florida, and from instructors who came to teach in the Edgewood Summit Art Studio. One of her paintings, entitled "Lee's Gardenia" was awarded a prize at a juried competition at the Van Leibig Art Center in Naples. Her body of work ranged from life studies and sculpture to portraits, and pastel and oil paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers and trees. Overall, she completed nearly 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited at Edgewood Summit and have been given to her children and grandchildren. Her children compiled a composite of her work and published it in a book they presented to her shortly before her death.
In Charleston, she was a long-term member of the First Presbyterian Church, Edgewood Country Club, The Clay Center (and a member of the Collectors Club), the Charleston Light Opera Guild, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
In Naples, she was a member of the Moorings Presbyterian Church, Bears Paw Country Club, the Naples Philharmonic and the Naples Museum of Art.
She also served on the Alumni Board, and as an Alumni Trustee for Hollins University.
In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her husband, Lee M. Kenna, and her brother, Walter C. Phillips Jr.
When asked about her life, she said that of all she had done, she was proudest of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and took pleasure in watching their growth, development and success. She wanted to make sure that they were aware of and appreciated their West Virginia heritage. For her 85th birthday, she hosted them all aboard a riverboat during Charleston's Labor Day Sternwheel Regatta, scheduled visits to many of Charleston's cultural and civic attractions, and arranged tours of three former Kenna / Phillips homes: "High Grove," the historic landmarked home of William E. Mohler and Walter C. Phillips in St. Albans; the former Kenna Family home overlooking Charleston on Ashby Avenue in Fort Hill; and the former home of Judge Jo N. and Louise M. Kenna on Swarthmore Avenue in Edgewood. And to reinforce the importance she placed on her family continuing to stay in touch, for her 90th birthday, she hosted them all for a weekend celebration at the Greenbrier, followed by a reception with her many friends at Edgewood Summit.
Her four children are Lee Mountcastle Kenna (Cachi) from Atherton, CA; Carolyn Tierney Griesemer (Jim) from Denver, CO; Katherine Kenna Dodd Combs (Gerry) from West Palm Beach, FL; and Joseph Edward Kenna from Atlanta, GA.
Her 10 grandchildren are Lee Ravenet (Randy) Kenna (Laura); Brian Mountcastle Kenna (Ingrid); Christine Marguerite Perez - Jacome Kenna (Alberto); Lewis Clark Tierney III (Collette); Lee Mountcastle Kenna Tierney; Christopher Scott Tierney (Sara); Lauren Elizabeth Dodd; Allison Mountcastle Dodd, Dallas Yancey Kenna and John Edward Kenna (Mackenzie).
Her 12 great - grandchildren are Ruby Estelle, Ephram Joseph and Maximo Isaac Kenna; Isabella Brigit and Anja Ravenet Kenna; Alberto, Nicolas Eduardo and Lucia Elizabeth Perez - Jacome Kenna; Ava Rose Tierney; and Channing Elizabeth, Campbell Clark and Maris Latterman Tierney.
A team of exceptional caregivers managed Betty's last four years with great warmth, patience, kindness, professional skill and unfailing devotion. The Kenna Family will be forever grateful for the love and extraordinary care they provided her: Darlene (Dee) Blackhurst, Gunna Early, Tammy Byrd, Cosetta (Cosi) Chadwick, Brenda Fowler and Morgan Isaacs. The family also wishes to thank Hospice Care of WV for the invaluable service they provided in her last days.
A memorial service will be held in late August at the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, with a reception to follow at Edgewood Summit. Interment will be at Sunset Memorial Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that those who wish to make a contribution donate in her honor to Hollins University, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA 24020; First Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301 or The Clay Center, 1 Clay Square, Charleston, WV 25301.
You may send condolences to the family at www.barlowbonsall.com.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Barlow-Bonsall Funeral Home in Charleston, WV.
Charleston Gazette Mail Innerviews Article By Sandy Wells 2014.
Forget Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Engine That Could. One special story meant more to her children and grandchildren than all the rest.
Granmom, please tell me about Pearl Harbor!
So she would tell them, again and again. Finally, Betty Kenna wrote it down for them, in longhand on a legal pad.
Shes 89, but the frightening words her father shouted 73 years ago in Hawaii echo in her mind as if shed just heard them: Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor!
Her father was an Army colonel, chief of staff to the commanding general in Hawaii. Betty Kenna was a freshman at the University of Hawaii that dreadful Day of Infamy in 1941. She went dancing the night before in Honolulu. I was having the time of my life, she said.
She had no clue about the ordeal she would face the next day.
Eventually, she returned to West Virginia, married lawyer Lee Kenna, plunged into community involvements, the mothering of four children and her growing passion for painting.
Much has happened since her momentous stay in Hawaii. But her experience there, those scary days in the tunnel, digging the latrine, flying home on the floor of a blacked-out plane, well, thats a memory for the books, storytime stuff for sure.
Im an Army brat. I grew up all over the country. I was born in China where my father was with military intelligence. We moved about every two years. Every time, it was a different school system. I got two years ahead of myself in school.
My mother was Ruth Mohler from St. Albans. My father was Walter C. Phillips from Buckhannon. He joined the service right after World War I. He met mother through her brother, a fraternity brother at West Virginia.
My father was Gen. [Walter] Shorts chief of staff in New York. We were stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, headquarters of the First Army Division. My parents loved that assignment, but Gen. Marshall insisted that Short take this Hawaiian command because they were so understaffed.
I was in private school in Brooklyn when they got this order to go to Hawaii. They had to go right away, about six months before I could finish school.
They sent me to Stuart Hall in Staunton, Virginia, a girls boarding school where they knew I would be safe. When I graduated, an aunt took me by boat to Hawaii. Thats the way everyone went to and from the islands. They didnt have commercial airplanes.
We lived in commander quarters at Fort Shafter on Oahu, right between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.
The night of Dec. 6, 1941, I had a date with a young ensign at a dinner party at the Royal Hawaiian, and we danced until midnight. Mother and father were at Scofield Barracks, the largest Army post, at an official function with the Shorts.
We all went to bed. The next thing I heard was early that morning. Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor! My father dashed down the stairs to go to headquarters.
He called back a half hour later and said to get dressed and get a blanket and a pillow and nothing else, that an Army truck would be there to take us to the tunnels in the mountains. All families of military personnel were taken to these tunnels.
We were shocked. We went in this old Army truck with a canvas top and wooden benches and our blanket and pillow, and they took us to these bare tunnels with nothing but dirt on the floor and rock overhead.
In the Army, when wives are separate from their husbands, the wives assume the same rank as their husbands. So Mrs. Short was in charge of the ladies in these tunnels.
The military there had been warned by telegram to be on constant alert for internal sabotage. The ships in the harbor were tied two by two and all bridges had guards on them. The minute the bombing started, they thought it was preparatory for an invasion, which is why they moved us to the tunnel. All the military went out to the beaches with barbed wire and fortifications to defend from an invasion by the Japanese.
We were in the tunnels for three days. Nothing but dirt and rock. After a half hour, an Army truck brought loaves of bread and 5 gallon containers of peanut butter and jelly. And Nehi soda. That was our meal for three days and nights.
General Shorts wife wasnt very organized and she asked my mother to take over. The first thing we had to do was build a latrine. Here were hundreds of women and children and old men and no bathroom.
Mother commanded the forces to dig a ditch at the back of the tunnel with sticks. We laid lumber on both sides and people who had extra blankets hung those over the lumber for privacy. You squatted over the ditch.
An old man died and two babies were born, and we did all this on our own. The whole time, we had no idea what was going on. We did get word that there was no invasion, which is what we were getting saved from.
At the end of the third day, representatives from Tripler General Hospital came wanting volunteers. So many sailors swimming through the water had been terribly burned and had schrapnel wounds. The oil from the ships caught fire and the water was aflame, and they had to swim through that to get to land if they got out of the bombed boat.
I went immediately to the hospital and held trays for the doctors.
The first few days I was nauseated. The patients were the worst looking things you ever saw. Where shrapnel went in was a big gaping hole, and their legs were swollen. I finally got it together and stayed two weeks.
They transferred me to the gangrene unit. When they discovered I wasnt a nurse, they sent me home to our headquarters. The town was black. Nobody was out. We stayed in the basement and sat around the radio. We had blankets over all the windows. We heard over the radio that Roosevelt had declared war.
Our Japanese maid sat with us in her kimono. She cooked meals for us in the daytime. We looked askance at each other. After a week, they said foreign servants would not be allowed on the post. We never found out what happened to her.
Our Christmas tree was a small potted palm from the front porch with no decorations or gifts.
She was born September 8, 1925, in Tientsin (now Tianjin), China, where her father was stationed in U.S. Army Intelligence, to Colonel Walter C. Phillips (from Buckhannon, WV) and Ruth Edward Mohler Phillips (from St Albans, WV).
She proudly referred to herself as an "Army brat," as her family was transferred nearly every two years and she grew up all over the United States. This experience influenced her and gave her the independence, confidence and competitive spirit that characterized her life. With each move, she was tested in a new school system and advanced in grade, with the result that she graduated high school at the age of 16, two years ahead of her peers.
She attended private school in Brooklyn, NY, when her father was stationed at Fort Hamilton, NY, and enjoyed taking the subway with her friends to New York City and Coney Island at a time when New York was a much safer place for teenagers to explore on their own. When her father was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as General Walter Short's Chief of Staff, she attended Stuart Hall preparatory school in Staunton, VA, and was named "most athletic" upon graduation.
She was a freshman at the University of Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. With her Mother, brother Phil (Walter C. Phillips Jr.), and other military families, she spent the nights following the attack in underground tunnels to ensure their safety in the event of invasion. During the day, she assisted hospital personnel treating those burned and wounded in the attack. The Charleston Gazette-Mail published several accounts of her experiences as a Pearl Harbor survivor.
In January of 1942, she moved with her mother to Charleston, WV, and lived in apartments then owned by the Mohler Family on Kanawha Blvd. While attending First Presbyterian Church, she met Lee Mountcastle Kenna, who would become her husband. They married June 12, 1944, and moved to Minnesota, where he attended Japanese Language School in preparation for the Allies' invasion of Japan; he later served as an interpreter in support of the Japanese War Crimes Trials.
While Lee was stationed in Japan, she attended Hollins University, in Roanoke, VA. Initially, she studied Physics and Mathematics, but ultimately graduated with a degree in Fine Arts. It was at Hollins that she began studying art and painting, which would become her lifelong passion.
While her husband was overseas, she gave birth to their first son, (Lee Mountcastle Jr.), bought their first house and joined the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, WV. After the war, three more children were born, (Carolyn Perry, Katherine Phillips and Joseph Edward).
While raising their family in Charleston, Mrs. Kenna devoted herself to athletics and community leadership. A natural athlete and competitive amateur tennis player, she won numerous women's singles and doubles titles at Edgewood Country Club, the City of Charleston, and Kanawha County. She served as President of the Junior League of Charleston and initiated and co-chaired the first WV State Conference on Voluntarism. She also served as President of the Children's Museum at Sunrise, President of the Children's Home Society of WV, and President of the Kanawha Valley Senior Services. She became the First President of the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council and was a member of the Rock Hill Garden Club.
Mrs. Kenna served as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Mohler Lumber Company for a number of years. She also actively supported her husband's political campaigns, ultimately traveling the state in support of his unsuccessful campaign for Governor in 1972.
When Lee retired from practicing law in 1984, they bought a home in Bears Paw Country Club in Naples, Florida, where they spent the winters. Although she took up golf late in life, she competed successfully in club and WV State Tournaments against women many years younger than she.
After Lee's death in 1997, she moved to Edgewood Summit and focused on developing her skills as an artist. She took many painting classes, both in Naples, Florida, and from instructors who came to teach in the Edgewood Summit Art Studio. One of her paintings, entitled "Lee's Gardenia" was awarded a prize at a juried competition at the Van Leibig Art Center in Naples. Her body of work ranged from life studies and sculpture to portraits, and pastel and oil paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers and trees. Overall, she completed nearly 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited at Edgewood Summit and have been given to her children and grandchildren. Her children compiled a composite of her work and published it in a book they presented to her shortly before her death.
In Charleston, she was a long-term member of the First Presbyterian Church, Edgewood Country Club, The Clay Center (and a member of the Collectors Club), the Charleston Light Opera Guild, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
In Naples, she was a member of the Moorings Presbyterian Church, Bears Paw Country Club, the Naples Philharmonic and the Naples Museum of Art.
She also served on the Alumni Board, and as an Alumni Trustee for Hollins University.
In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her husband, Lee M. Kenna, and her brother, Walter C. Phillips Jr.
When asked about her life, she said that of all she had done, she was proudest of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and took pleasure in watching their growth, development and success. She wanted to make sure that they were aware of and appreciated their West Virginia heritage. For her 85th birthday, she hosted them all aboard a riverboat during Charleston's Labor Day Sternwheel Regatta, scheduled visits to many of Charleston's cultural and civic attractions, and arranged tours of three former Kenna / Phillips homes: "High Grove," the historic landmarked home of William E. Mohler and Walter C. Phillips in St. Albans; the former Kenna Family home overlooking Charleston on Ashby Avenue in Fort Hill; and the former home of Judge Jo N. and Louise M. Kenna on Swarthmore Avenue in Edgewood. And to reinforce the importance she placed on her family continuing to stay in touch, for her 90th birthday, she hosted them all for a weekend celebration at the Greenbrier, followed by a reception with her many friends at Edgewood Summit.
Her four children are Lee Mountcastle Kenna (Cachi) from Atherton, CA; Carolyn Tierney Griesemer (Jim) from Denver, CO; Katherine Kenna Dodd Combs (Gerry) from West Palm Beach, FL; and Joseph Edward Kenna from Atlanta, GA.
Her 10 grandchildren are Lee Ravenet (Randy) Kenna (Laura); Brian Mountcastle Kenna (Ingrid); Christine Marguerite Perez - Jacome Kenna (Alberto); Lewis Clark Tierney III (Collette); Lee Mountcastle Kenna Tierney; Christopher Scott Tierney (Sara); Lauren Elizabeth Dodd; Allison Mountcastle Dodd, Dallas Yancey Kenna and John Edward Kenna (Mackenzie).
Her 12 great - grandchildren are Ruby Estelle, Ephram Joseph and Maximo Isaac Kenna; Isabella Brigit and Anja Ravenet Kenna; Alberto, Nicolas Eduardo and Lucia Elizabeth Perez - Jacome Kenna; Ava Rose Tierney; and Channing Elizabeth, Campbell Clark and Maris Latterman Tierney.
A team of exceptional caregivers managed Betty's last four years with great warmth, patience, kindness, professional skill and unfailing devotion. The Kenna Family will be forever grateful for the love and extraordinary care they provided her: Darlene (Dee) Blackhurst, Gunna Early, Tammy Byrd, Cosetta (Cosi) Chadwick, Brenda Fowler and Morgan Isaacs. The family also wishes to thank Hospice Care of WV for the invaluable service they provided in her last days.
A memorial service will be held in late August at the First Presbyterian Church in Charleston, with a reception to follow at Edgewood Summit. Interment will be at Sunset Memorial Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that those who wish to make a contribution donate in her honor to Hollins University, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA 24020; First Presbyterian Church, 16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301 or The Clay Center, 1 Clay Square, Charleston, WV 25301.
You may send condolences to the family at www.barlowbonsall.com.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Barlow-Bonsall Funeral Home in Charleston, WV.
Charleston Gazette Mail Innerviews Article By Sandy Wells 2014.
Forget Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and The Little Engine That Could. One special story meant more to her children and grandchildren than all the rest.
Granmom, please tell me about Pearl Harbor!
So she would tell them, again and again. Finally, Betty Kenna wrote it down for them, in longhand on a legal pad.
Shes 89, but the frightening words her father shouted 73 years ago in Hawaii echo in her mind as if shed just heard them: Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor!
Her father was an Army colonel, chief of staff to the commanding general in Hawaii. Betty Kenna was a freshman at the University of Hawaii that dreadful Day of Infamy in 1941. She went dancing the night before in Honolulu. I was having the time of my life, she said.
She had no clue about the ordeal she would face the next day.
Eventually, she returned to West Virginia, married lawyer Lee Kenna, plunged into community involvements, the mothering of four children and her growing passion for painting.
Much has happened since her momentous stay in Hawaii. But her experience there, those scary days in the tunnel, digging the latrine, flying home on the floor of a blacked-out plane, well, thats a memory for the books, storytime stuff for sure.
Im an Army brat. I grew up all over the country. I was born in China where my father was with military intelligence. We moved about every two years. Every time, it was a different school system. I got two years ahead of myself in school.
My mother was Ruth Mohler from St. Albans. My father was Walter C. Phillips from Buckhannon. He joined the service right after World War I. He met mother through her brother, a fraternity brother at West Virginia.
My father was Gen. [Walter] Shorts chief of staff in New York. We were stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, headquarters of the First Army Division. My parents loved that assignment, but Gen. Marshall insisted that Short take this Hawaiian command because they were so understaffed.
I was in private school in Brooklyn when they got this order to go to Hawaii. They had to go right away, about six months before I could finish school.
They sent me to Stuart Hall in Staunton, Virginia, a girls boarding school where they knew I would be safe. When I graduated, an aunt took me by boat to Hawaii. Thats the way everyone went to and from the islands. They didnt have commercial airplanes.
We lived in commander quarters at Fort Shafter on Oahu, right between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.
The night of Dec. 6, 1941, I had a date with a young ensign at a dinner party at the Royal Hawaiian, and we danced until midnight. Mother and father were at Scofield Barracks, the largest Army post, at an official function with the Shorts.
We all went to bed. The next thing I heard was early that morning. Get up! Get up! The Japs are bombing Pearl Harbor! My father dashed down the stairs to go to headquarters.
He called back a half hour later and said to get dressed and get a blanket and a pillow and nothing else, that an Army truck would be there to take us to the tunnels in the mountains. All families of military personnel were taken to these tunnels.
We were shocked. We went in this old Army truck with a canvas top and wooden benches and our blanket and pillow, and they took us to these bare tunnels with nothing but dirt on the floor and rock overhead.
In the Army, when wives are separate from their husbands, the wives assume the same rank as their husbands. So Mrs. Short was in charge of the ladies in these tunnels.
The military there had been warned by telegram to be on constant alert for internal sabotage. The ships in the harbor were tied two by two and all bridges had guards on them. The minute the bombing started, they thought it was preparatory for an invasion, which is why they moved us to the tunnel. All the military went out to the beaches with barbed wire and fortifications to defend from an invasion by the Japanese.
We were in the tunnels for three days. Nothing but dirt and rock. After a half hour, an Army truck brought loaves of bread and 5 gallon containers of peanut butter and jelly. And Nehi soda. That was our meal for three days and nights.
General Shorts wife wasnt very organized and she asked my mother to take over. The first thing we had to do was build a latrine. Here were hundreds of women and children and old men and no bathroom.
Mother commanded the forces to dig a ditch at the back of the tunnel with sticks. We laid lumber on both sides and people who had extra blankets hung those over the lumber for privacy. You squatted over the ditch.
An old man died and two babies were born, and we did all this on our own. The whole time, we had no idea what was going on. We did get word that there was no invasion, which is what we were getting saved from.
At the end of the third day, representatives from Tripler General Hospital came wanting volunteers. So many sailors swimming through the water had been terribly burned and had schrapnel wounds. The oil from the ships caught fire and the water was aflame, and they had to swim through that to get to land if they got out of the bombed boat.
I went immediately to the hospital and held trays for the doctors.
The first few days I was nauseated. The patients were the worst looking things you ever saw. Where shrapnel went in was a big gaping hole, and their legs were swollen. I finally got it together and stayed two weeks.
They transferred me to the gangrene unit. When they discovered I wasnt a nurse, they sent me home to our headquarters. The town was black. Nobody was out. We stayed in the basement and sat around the radio. We had blankets over all the windows. We heard over the radio that Roosevelt had declared war.
Our Japanese maid sat with us in her kimono. She cooked meals for us in the daytime. We looked askance at each other. After a week, they said foreign servants would not be allowed on the post. We never found out what happened to her.
Our Christmas tree was a small potted palm from the front porch with no decorations or gifts.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
