Margie J. Kennedy was born October 23, 1943, in San Antonio, TX, to Ocampo and Marguerite Martinez. She was the middle child of three, preceded in death by her older brother Robert (R.O.) Martinez. She married Frank Kennedy on June 17, 1967, and they spent better than fifty years walking this life together. Margie was a treasured daughter, wife, sister, mother, and friend. She was a fifth-generation Texan, a descendant of an Alamo defender. Her love for her home state ran as deep and wide as Texas itself. Margie always knew where she’d come from, so she always had a pretty good idea where she was going. Her memberships in both the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the United Daughters of the Confederacy informed much of that, but it was family first and foremost that formed the best of her.
She loved reading, learning, cooking, art, dance, and travel. She enjoyed going to museums. She wandered all over the US and Canada with Frank, and when their daughter Angela came along, the road trips turned toward cruise ships exploring Mexico and the Panama Canal. Margie especially loved attending her husband’s Navy reunions, where her pride in both him and in our country could be on display all at once. She was a people person from way back. She loved volunteer work and donating her time to folks who needed it. Her daughter’s various fundraising endeavors for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life were the most prevalent, but when it came to helping people Margie always answered the call. She loved to celebrate her own cancer survivor status and participate in fun survivor activities. But she never really saw herself as just a survivor. She knew she’d won something important and it meant something to her to help others find the same fight and spirit in themselves. Margie wanted to see everyone start tomorrow better than they’d been today. She was also active in the Red Hat Society and Beta Sigma Phi Sorority. She truly enjoyed helping people.
Margie loved her family and she loved to laugh. She made all of the holidays special, Christmas especially. She sure loved to bake and decorate. She also loved her animals. Plenty of cats and dogs crossed her path throughout her life, and she loved them all – treats and affection on tap for free.
Margie also loved the Lord. She made sure Angela went to Sunday school and had a good church foundation, that her child got the chance to know and love the Lord as much as her mother did. She volunteered with the church in any way she could and attended services often with her family.
Music was a big part of her life, all kinds from gospel to classic country to Texas Music. She loved singing the church hymns. She had many friends in the Texas music scene and counted as friends many of the artists involved. Some she and her daughter met as fans, others they encountered through cancer benefits and other volunteer planning. To Margie, they were all friends and family.
Her heart was the kind that made an orphan feel at home, and she spent a lifetime giving that heart freely to anyone who needed it. None who knew her will forget, but we’ll all try to live up to who she was.
Margie is survived by her husband Frank Kennedy, her daughter Angela Kennedy Cook, her son-in-law James Cook, her younger brother Richard Martinez and his wife Neta Martinez, brother-in-law Billy Kennedy, sister-in-law Linda Kennedy, and many nieces and nephews.
Memorial Mass: 11:00 am, Thursday, April 7, 2022 at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church, 1200 S. Davis Dr., Arlington, Texas 76013.
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