Anne McKenney ( - 2009)

[I just got email from Elizabeth/Beth McKenney and she had some corrections for me.]

I just got the word that Anne McKenney passed away several years ago in 2009. I had been out of touch with the McKenney family and just got back in touch and found out.

Anne was like a second mother to me. I was friends with her five children and spent a huge amount of time in their great three-story house in Richmond, Va. Anne's husband, "Speed" McKenney, was friends with my uncle Harry and the two of them famously built the Virginia power grid out to rural areas in the 1950s (I think).  Beth tells me that no one knows where "Speed"'s nickname came from.

The good news is that I am back in touch with the family again and maybe I will somehow figure out how to get enough money to visit them in Richmond, Va.

In the small world category, Anne was the Aunt, I think, of Glorianna Davenport of MIT.  In other words, according to Elizabeth, Glorianna is Anne's niece.  I always have trouble keeping these relationships straight, I admit.

This is a picture of Anne.  Yes, a bit older, but definitely looking like her and with the same smile that I remember.

This makes three friends that I hear have passed away in the last month. I certainly hope that this trend does not continue.

Thank God that this is not going to happen to us and that we are not going to get any older.

[Addendum: A friend heard how distraught I was that I had not visited Anne when she was still with us (because of poverty of course) and he is determined to visit an elderly friend of his, assuming he is still here, we can only hope.  So maybe some good can come from this.  Learn from my mistakes, you who are reading this.]