DeWitt T Kennedy Family
by Jayne Kennedy Sweger
jsweger@bresnan.net
| Audrey Welliver, daughter of John C and Martha Jane Cluck Welliver, married DeWitt T
Kennedy March 11, 1928 at Butler, Bates Co, Missouri. Mr Kennedy was born in 1893 to R Y and Axaphia Wink Kennedy
northwest of Coffeyville, Kansas. A few days before his wedding he wrote his future wife: "I have today bought
a bed and set a hen". The hen later rode in her box under the wagon seat from Coffeyville to Nowata. Audrey
drove their car, and D T "Dude" hauled their possessions the 25 miles south to their farm 1 1/2 miles
southeast of Nowata (or, 1/2 mile east of the Park). Dude & Audrey raised vegetables and sold them to Nowata stores, as well as farmed their 80 acres. In June of 1929 a daughter, Carol Jeane, was born. She passed away three weeks later. In August, 1931, a second daughter, Jayne, was born. Audrey was an active member of Loyal Neighbors Extension Club, receiving a 55 year plaque in 1992, two years before her death. She was part of the conception of the Nowata Historical Society and Museum. The Home Extension Room at the Museum is her brain-child. She spent many hours over a two year period going through the memorabilia from all the Extension Clubs in the County, finally selecting those items which she placed in the Extension Room. Before the Library was as we know it today, books were collected from the defunct library located over the Fire Department, and placed in a home in each Home Extension Club in the County. Those books rotated throughout the County and were our only library for several years. Audrey was keeper of the Loyal Neighbors Library. These "Extension" books were the nucleus of the Nowata City-County Library. |
|
| Audrey began volunteering at the Library back when it was located in the Depot, then
in the building on East Modoc, finally moving to the present site at the Harmon Complex. She continued as a volunteer
librarian until a few years before her death. Dude was a Pvt in Co M, 14 Infantry, Kansas, during WW I. He was an excellent farmer, but left it to work at Parkersburg Rig & Reel in Coffeyville during WW II, receiving an "E" pin for excellence. Jayne married Lloyd Sweger of Talala in 1949. They had three children: Gretchen (Mrs Terry Joe Collins); they live in Tulsa. Dale L Sweger, USAF Retired, living in Montana; Loretta Sweger-Graham (Mrs Richard Graham) of Bartlesville. Audrey's Obituary D.T. Kennedy's Obituary |
|
Sweger Family Biography
by Jayne Kennedy Sweger.
Audrey and DeWitt Kennedy
I was born on the Kennedy farm SE of Nowata on 17 August 1931. My parents moved there just after their marriage in 1928. My mother, Audrey Welliver Kennedy, was a Missouri native, living near Butler. My dad, DeWitt (Dude) T. Kennedy was born in Coffeyville, Kansas.
[My mother, Audrey Kennedy, was on the committee that formed the NCHS, and later worked getting the Museum established. The Home Extension Room is entirely her brain child. She spent about two years going through memorabilia from all the Extension Clubs in the County, from which she selected the exhibits that are still featured today. She also served as a docent until she became too infirm to continue. She told me that her association with the NCHS/Museum gave her one of the greatest satisfactions of her life.]
Mother was visiting her Grandparents, Jacob Brazel Cluck, in Coffeyville. While in the home of her cousin, Arnold Burris, she met her future husband, who was Arnold's friend. The Jack & Goldie Powell family of Deering, were also cousins.
The house where I was born, burned when I was three years old. We lived in a small garage there on the farm for several years until a new house could be built in 1939. It had four rooms, no plumbing, no electricity. Our telephone was 1626-F1-2, which indicated that on our party line our ring was one long, 2 shorts.
My earliest childhood memory was when I was nine or ten months old. I was sitting on a blanket on the floor looking up at my Kennedy Grandparents, who had come to visit. It is rather like a b&w negative in my mind, just one frame. When I was four or five, I remember walking to town on the east side of the Park with my parents, and seeing a highway crew pouring concrete during the construction of Highway 169.
We played dominos and Chinese Checkers, and I have a life-time pleasure I share with my Dad, Solitaire.
My favorite "toy" was my horse, Star. He and my dog, Blackie, were my constant companions in the summer, and when it was warm enough, in the winter.
I was a fan of movies from the time I was old enough to walk to town on Saturdays. By high school, I was working at Mr Fleming's theater's, the Rainbow and Luxor. I saw the Western three times every Saturday, then met with my date, my future husband, Lloyd H Sweger from Talala, and we went to the Rex to see the early show, and, of course, stay for the Preview!
School was extremely unpleasant for me. Math was my worst subject, and history and English were probably the best. I attended the Nowata Schools until I graduated High School in 1949. I was in the Grade School Band, and the High School Drum and Bugle Corps.
My favorite music was and is Country Western.
My family attended the First Christian Church in Nowata.
World War II had to be the world influence. While I was too young to understand what was really going on, I certainly felt the rationing. However, living on a farm, we probably fared better than some, as Mother canned and froze everything edible that could be canned or frozen.
Mother was an excellent cook, really enjoyed cooking, and she served delicious and creative meals. I think my favorite everyday meal was beans and cornbread. Holiday meals, usually chicken with all the trimmings, which included Mother's homemade noodles, were everyone's favorite.
We got electricity at the farm about 1946. What a marvelous thing. Nice bright lights to see by, to power a sewing machine, a refrigerator, etc. Indoor plumbing came in 1948, with an electric pump in our cistern.
How is the world different from when I was a child? I don't have to walk everywhere I go. I have a car, not a team of horses and a wagon. I have access to a marvelous library, and paperbacks galore. I not only have a TV, but satellite TV! VCR's, DVD's. Microwaves. Washers & dryers. Telephones that are not on a party line. Airplanes for distant travel. Medicine has come a long way, and excellent care is close.
In my lifetime I've seen the metamorphous of travel from horse & buggy to jet airplanes. I suspect there has been more positive change in the quality of life during this time than in any other time in history. Everything considered, a grand time to have lived.
My oldest relatives were both my Grandmother's. Grandmother Axaphia Wink Kennedy lived in Coffeyville; Grandmother Martha Jane Cluck Welliver lived in El Dorado Springs, MO. They both lived to be 94. My Mother lived to be 91.
My Kennedy surname: the oldest I have record of is John & Elizabeth Kennedy who came to the US from Ireland, before the Revolutionary War, docking at Charleston, SC. My second great Grandfather, John Kennedy, fought in the Revolution under General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox". The Kennedy's are of Scotch-Irish descent, and married into an English family, the Robert's, who came from Maine. They met up in Indiana. The Robert's had moved from Maine during the "Year Without A Summer", 1816-1817, a result of the eruption of Mt Tambora in the East Indies in 1815.
However, when the Kennedy's married into the Robert's family, they also married into the Mayflower line of John Howland, one of the passengers. The earliest date in my family history is 1299, and I have thousands of names in my database.
Probably the most valued recipe I have is my Mother's egg noodles. My daughters and I make very good noodles, but not as good as Mother's.
I was an only child.
I met my husband, Lloyd Sweger, while I worked at the theaters. We dated for about a year before our marriage on the 8th of September, 1949. We were married in the old Methodist Church chapel. There were about a dozen of us Senior girls who were engaged during our Senior year. There is a picture in our annual of our left hands in a circle showing our engagement rings.
My oldest daughter is named after my favorite aunt, Gretchen Kennedy McCoy. The other children, Dale and Loretta, are just because we liked those names.
I think our favorite family pastime was meal time. We were all always there for supper, and we enjoyed the meal and each other.
While I never worked full time, I did learn to write. Writing has always come easy for me, and it wasn't that much of a jump to begin writing articles and selling them. I tried book length manuscripts, but I don't have the touch for fiction that I do for non-fiction. My published articles were non-fiction. Mostly, I was a house-wife, and I enjoyed that. One of my short-term jobs was driving a school bus, which I did for six years for Oologah. A good job since my children rode my bus; it worked out well.
The ability to type has been a great pleasure for me. My Dad brought me my first typewriter when I was in the third grade. After his father's (R.Y. Kennedy) death, they closed out his office in Coffeyville, and I got a typewriter and a typing table. The typewriter was an old Remington whose carriage lifted when I used the shift key. I got a typing book at the library, and taught myself to type, but had to wait until I was a Junior to actually take typing. Had to unlearn some bad habits, but I had a leg up already. And now, with computers, it is such fun to put my family history into programs designed for it. And those wonderful photography programs!
My parents taught me to be honest, kind, and thoughtful of other people.
Probably the most important thing I've done was to raise three children to be good citizens, honest, kind and thoughtful. Aside from that, I was proud and excited when I sold my first article to Ford Times, a true story about an incident during the Revolutionary War. Not to mention a very hefty check.
