Elaine Ann Kennedy
( March 30, 1933 – November 24, 2022 )
Elaine Ann Kennedy died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her family at her home in Des Moines, New Mexico, on the morning of November 24, 2022, at the age of 89. It makes perfect sense that she joined the angels on Thanksgiving Day, which is full of things she held dear — her family, bonding over good meals she so often made with love and giving thanks.
A Rosary Service will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Des Moines. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 28, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Folsom where Elaine was both baptized and married. A private family burial will follow. Pall bearers are Drew Kennedy, Travis Kennedy, Matthew Townley, Colby Kennedy, Casey Kennedy, and John Kennedy. Honorary pallbearers are Jeremy Weese, Wally Mitchell, Nicholas Arledge, Keith Anding and Travis Hinman. Arrangements are under the direction of Hass Funeral Directors of Clayton.
Larger than life, but humble in spirit, Elaine was born March 30, 1933, in Folsom, New Mexico, to parents Dan. A Doherty and Hazel Lane Doherty. She attended Des Moines High School. Her freshman year, she met a young man named Dick Kennedy when she stopped in for ice cream at the Y George Drug Store. It was love at first sight. They were smitten. Four years later on June 30, 1950, they were married at a hilltop Catholic church in Folsom that her grandparents had so stalwartly pioneered years earlier. Elaine eventually became a doting Mom, and then, to her delight, she gained the title of Nanny. To her 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren everything good in life reminded them of her — Faith in God, a garden full of beautiful flowers, laughter, home-cooked meals from the garden, the best chocolate cake on Earth, listening and always encouraging, sending books of beautiful poems and prayers to lift them up, and wonderful cards every birthday. She also extended her grace, kindness and giving heart to those in the community by baking birthday cakes for the elderly and visiting them in times of need to lift their spirits. To all who knew her, she will always be remembered as classy, witty, honorable, honest, wise, faithful and endlessly loving. To her husband, she will be remembered as a forever love, his one and only, the girl he’s so glad never got away and the only one he could have ever so deeply devoted his whole heart to for the past 72 years. She is preceded in death by her parents Dan and Hazel Doherty and her brother Dan Doherty, Jr. and his wife Loren, brother-in-law John Kennedy and his wife Vera and sister-in-law Betty Kennedy. She leaves behind her husband Dick Kennedy, her children Jane Kay Amerson (Ken), Susan Kennedy, Nancy Townley (Bob), Kirk Kennedy (Cathy) and Brian Kennedy (Cindy), her 11 grandchildren Nicole, Micaela, Amy, Drew, Carrie, Travis, Matthew, Annie, Emily, Colby, and Casey, who blessed her with 14 great grandchildren and her brother Jim Doherty (Sylvia), brother-in-law Bill Kennedy, sister-in-law Margaret Ann Crow and numerous nieces, nephews and friends.
MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to St. Juan Diego Knight of Columbus Council 15974 — 52 Volcano Highway, Capulin, New Mexico, 88414 or to EMS services of Des Moines — 77 N. Olive St., Des Moines New Mexico, 88418.
