MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS: Stetson Kennedy remembered at memorial service

Stetson Kennedy remembered at memorial service
Posted: October 2, 2011 - 12:31amPhotos Back | Next


By DARON DEAN, daron.dean@staugustine.com
Stetson Kennedy sits in the dining room of his Valencia Street home in downtown St. Augustine.

By Charlie Patton Copyright 2011 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

October 2, 2011 - 12:31am
Stetson Kennedy remembered at memorial service
Morris News Service
On a near perfect fall afternoon, friends and families gathered Saturday at Beluthahatchee to remember the life of Stetson Kennedy, the Jacksonville-born writer and human rights activist who died Aug. 24 at age 94.

Beluthahatchee is the name Kennedy gave to a piece of natural Florida that he managed to preserve in northern St. Johns County against the encroachment of civilization for more than six decades.

“We are so fortunate today to walk around in the soul of Stetson Kennedy,” his widow, Sandra Parks, said during the memorial celebration.

She said his efforts to protect the tree canopy at Beluthahatchee while creating Lake Beluthahatchee made Kennedy one of Florida’s “first green developers.”

Kennedy advised young people, “pick a cause and stick to it,” she said.

Kennedy picked several and pursued them all his life, she said: “He had a passion for the common good. Stetson loved democracy. I’m pretty sure I can say Stetson loved democracy more than the seven women he was married to.”

Loren Kennedy, Stetson’s 69-year-old son, said having such a focused man as his father wasn’t always easy.

“He was an uncommon man and an uncommon father,” Loren Kennedy said. “All his conversations were serious.”

But the older he grew, the more he appreciated that serious focus, he said.

“He taught me to think at 30,000 feet,” he said.

Katherine Jones, one of Kennedy’s stepdaughters, flew in for the day from Boston, where she is assistant dean of the Harvard Divinity School. She said when she thinks of her stepfather, she can’t help but compare him to William Lloyd Garrison, a passionate Bostonian who was a leader of the 19th century abolitionist movement.

But when she thinks of Kennedy’s work as a folklorist, “there is no comparison” with anyone else, she said.

As head of the Florida Folklore Project, part of the federal Works Progress Administration’s Writers Project in the late 1930s, Kennedy worked to compile folklore for a WPA guide to Florida. He then wrote his first book, “Palmetto Country,” on Florida folklore, before turning his attention to Southern hate groups with “Southern Exposure” and “The Klan Unmasked.”

“Stetson was steeped in folklore,” said Peggy Bulger, director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on his folklore work. She now plans to retire and write a book on Kennedy’s life.

“His attitude was, ‘What good is it if it doesn’t make the world a better place,’” she said. “With Stetson, it was all about making the world a better place.”

While Kennedy never completed the memoir he had been discussing for years, John Sutherland, a Flagler College student who spent last summer working with Kennedy on the project, said, “There is an amazing amount of material. Stetson was always working. The memoirs were always a big agenda for him.”

The celebration began with an hour of music, including several pieces by Kennedy’s great friend Woody Guthrie, who composed many songs at Beluthahatchee. At the end of the ceremony, everyone sang Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” Then they walked down to Lake Beluthahatchee and watched as Kennedy’s ashes were scattered on the lake.

Beluthahatchee is now a park, and the house Kennedy built in 1972 has been designated a Literary Landmark by the Friends of the Library USA. The Stetson Kennedy Foundation is raising funds to buy additional land for the park. Donations can be sent to the foundation at 1523 State Road 13, Fruit Cove, FL 32259.