Lillian Agnes (Flanagan) Kennedy, 88, affectionately known as "Ma" Kennedy, died Tuesday August 14, 2007 at Our Lady's Haven after a long full life. While being very shy and warm, she could also laugh at almost anything. Both intelligence and creativity marked her spirit that had an April fools flair for practical jokes. Although she was known more through her eleven children whose visibility in the community of New Bedford spans 50 years, her life was highlighted by achievements long before she moved to New Bedford from Winthrop and married Mortimer Downing Kennedy of the South End. After being married in 1946, she bore 11 children within 13 years and then her husband passed away suddenly at the age of 47. Before coming to New Bedford, she had graduated at the top of her class in Winthrop and moved to Washington, D.C. to work. She was employed as the first female U.S. War Bond Officer and later worked at Harvard Law School. At the age of 28 she had her first child. From the early 1960s, she worked to raise her kids only on Social Security and the kindness of relatives and friends, returning to office work in the late 1970s.
She was an active member of the Legion of Mary for many years. During the late 1950s, she and her husband worked with a small group of secular people to establish Bishop Stang High School, the school from which all 11 children graduated. At the last Kennedy commencement in 1978, she was presented by the school administration with a dozen roses for the accomplishment of her entire family graduating.
She believed that faith was the greatest gift and self-sacrifice was the greatest good. In a self-centered materialistic world, she was very rare. The earth has lost a beautiful simple soul.
Her children in order of birth are the late Kathleen Kennedy of New Bedford, Maureen Otis of Dartmouth and her husband Edmund, Daniel Kennedy of Yarmouthport and his wife Patty, David Kennedy of Edinburg, TX and his wife Ana, Teresa Kennedy Daigle of Fairhaven and her husband Norman, Thomas A. Kennedy of New Bedford, Joseph Kennedy of Fairhaven and his wife Susie, Mary Grace Kennedy of New Bedford, Margaret Kennedy of New Bedford, Annie Kennedy Phelps of Kennebunkport, ME and her husband Michael, and Patty Kennedy of New Bedford. She is also survived by her sister, Ruth Soares and her brother Charles Flanagan, both of Winthrop; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and countless nieces and nephews. She was also the sister of the late Helen Gilbert.
With all her humility, her shyness, and undying faith in God, her family invites relatives and friends to celebrate her life with them at the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford on Sunday from 2-7 PM, and her Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at St. James Church, 233 County St., New Bedford on Monday at 11 AM. Although not necessary, the family knows that some people may wish to send flowers. Please know that the family is hoping to keep with the theme of "white daisies", or white flowers only. Remembrances in her memory may be made to Our Lady's Haven, 71 Center St. Fairhaven, MA 02719. For directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.