OBITUARY AND ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ABOUT DR. CHARLES R. KENNEDY

OBITUARY:
Dr. Charles R. Kennedy was born in 1897 to Ernest and Arminta Kennedy in Kansas, the oldest of thirteen children. He passed away October 28, 1986 in Paso Robles, California.

He served in the 20th Infantry during World War 1. After his discharge, he earned his BA degree from the University of Kansas. He taught High School in Esbon, Kansas, and in 1925 pursued a suppressed desire to become a professional baseball player with the Kansas City Blues.

He determined to pursue another desire to be a physician. He entered the University of Colorado in Denver. All the while, he played semi-pro baseball to pay his way. He interned in San Francisco and naturally chose to locate in Paso Robles where a pleasant office existed and the Pittsburgh Pirates trained.

He married Charlotte Mevich, June 21, 1930 and to them were born two children, John and Susan. He joined the U. S. Army as a major at Camp Stoneman in World War II, and had a tour of duty in the Pacific. In 1946 he returned to his medical practice in Paso Robles. His wife, Charlotte passed away August 7, 1970.

He had been active in many organizations, socially, and professionally. Perennial "team physician" for the Paso Robles Bearcat athletes, trainer of baseball teams and still able to wear his U. S. Army uniforms from World War I and II with his fellows of the American Legion, Dr. Kennedy has been awarded all the honors of Paso Robles and its community.
He married Dorothy Kinne, October 12, 1972, and they had enjoyed his retirement together.

Preceding him in death were his parents; brothers Forrest, David, Lyall, Byron, James, Donald and Morris; and one sister, Georgia Obert. Survivors include his wife, Dorothy Kennedy, Paso Robles, a son John Kennedy and wife of Concord, California; a daughter, Susan Mason of Seattle; four grandchildren; one great-grandchild; three sisters, Frances Obert, Jessie Muck, Vivian Ost; and one brother, Kenneth Kennedy, along with step children and families.

Memorial funeral services were conducted Friday, October 31, at 2 P.M. in the First Baptist Church. The Rev. Paul Brown officiated. Interment was in the Paso Robles District Cemetery, Paso Robles, California.
(The Lebanon Times, Lebanon, Kansas, Nov. 20, 1986. Adapted here to exclude the specific date and place of birth.)

ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Like all of his siblings, Charles attended the rural one-room Lone Tree School through the eighth grade, graduating in 1911. After graduating, he stayed home and worked on the family farm for a year and then in 1912-1913 attended Lone Tree School for the ninth grade (the report card was in his personal files). This was apparently a special arrangement given that the rural schools normally taught only through the eighth grade. It was likely a compromise between Charles’s desire to continue his education and his father’s need for him to work on the farm. Charles also stayed home and worked on the farm the next year.

In the fall of 1914, after his brother Forrest had graduated the eighth grade and could work on the farm, Charles began high school in Mankato, Kansas. Commuting was not feasible in those days and kids from farms who attended high school had to find a room in town. Charles stayed at the YMCA. He graduated in 1918 at age 20 and was valedictorian. He apparently started with the ninth grade at Mankato.

After high school, he joined the U.S. Army for WW I, but the war ended and he returned home in the summer of 1919. He started college at Washburn in Topeka, Kansas that fall and attended for two and a half years. When he left Washburn in February, 1922, a newspaper article reported that he was treasurer of the junior class, secretary and treasurer of the “W” club, and had athletic letters in football 1919, 1920, 1921; baseball 1920, 1921, captain in 1921; basketball 1921; track 1920, 1921; and was chosen all state tackle in 1921. Although he did well academically and in athletics, he did not have scholarships and had to support himself through college. His many jobs in college included carrying papers, janitorial work, and professional pall bearer.

He transferred from Washburn to the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1922 in order to pursue medical studies. In 1923 he took a year off to make money teaching and coaching at Esbon High School in Esbon, Kansas near the family farm. At the end of the fall term in 1925 he had met the requirements for his A.B. degree (now generally called a B.A. degree) and also for his first year of medical school. He also had lettered in baseball at the University of Kansas, playing as pitcher and in the outfield.

As he was completing his last term at the University of Kansas, the minor league baseball team Kansas City Blues contacted him about a contract to try out for the team. Baseball was a passion for him and he dreamed of playing professional baseball. In February, 1926 he reported to their training camp and began practicing with them. He was released from the team two months later in April. The baseball records for the Kansas City Blues for that season do not show him as playing on the team.

He then played semi-pro baseball for the 1926 season on a team in Crawford, Nebraska. Minor league baseball was considered professional full-time work and paid accordingly, but semi-pro baseball was typically part-time work that did not pay enough to support a player. In addition to playing baseball he worked many different jobs such as unloading trucks at a grocery store, making deliveries, working at the mercantile, loading and unloading heavy freight, delivering ice (referred to himself as the iceman), helping the Maytag man with deliveries, laying linoleum, driving the laundry truck, working evenings at the movie theater, and more.

In December of 1926 he acknowledged that playing professional baseball was not working out and decided to return to medical school. The following fall he began studies at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. During the summers of 1927, 1928, and 1929 he played semi-pro baseball with a team in Oshkosh, Nebraska.

Years later he said and wrote that he was offered five other professional baseball contracts, but he did not pursue them because he wanted to be a doctor. Documents relating to those offers were not found in his files. The offers presumably were contracts to try out for a team and were made while he was in medical school. Given his initial experience trying out for a minor league team, he may have been unwilling at that point to risk or delay his medical career in pursuit of baseball.

While playing baseball in Oshkosh, Nebraska he met Charlotte Mevich who was from that area. They married when he graduated from medical school in June, 1930.

During his medical career he achieved four medical specialty fellowships: abdominal surgery, proctology, family practice, and geriatrics.

Charles had long-term interests in photography and family history. He wrote a booklet about his great-great-grandmother and a book about his grandfather. He also did extensive genealogical research and wrote summaries of family history that have been widely distributed in the family.

Charles was always a very positive person (“each day was the best day of his life”) and negativity was pushed away and never mentioned or documented.

(The additional information was written by Charles’s nephew Jim Kennedy based on sources noted and information from Charles’s son John obtained from Charles’s extensive personal records.)