Genevieve Mary Margaret Kendall

Genevieve Mary Margaret Kendall, of Clare, Michigan, age 99, died at her home on Nov. 4, 2015, in her 100th year. She was born March 12, 1916, in Saginaw, Michigan, the daughter of John and Magdalen Hammis. She graduated from SS. Peter and Paul High School in 1934, and worked as a legal secretary. On February 9, 1937, she married George A. Kendall, Jr., also of Saginaw, a marriage which lasted 51 years, until his death in 1988, and produced 6 children, 9 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren. Genevieve, known to her friends as Gen, was a lifelong Catholic, whose faith ran very deep and who had a powerful sense of the presence of eternity. She was devoted to her husband and children. She faced many challenges in caring for them, including the task of raising a son who was handicapped from polio. She met these challenges with both wisdom and courage. In middle age, she took several courses at Delta College (in English and psychology) and took great pride in this achievement. Throughout her life, she read every book she could get her hands on, and passed the love of reading on to all her children. She also enjoyed writing, kept a diary all her life, and wrote an autobiography, which she updated from time to time. And then there was her legendary gardening. She had the greenest of green thumbs, and populated her yard with lovely, colorful flowers, not to mention vegetables. If you visited her at the right time of the year, you could count on being fed salads in which every ingredient, other than the dressing, came right out of the garden. She also excelled at the notoriously difficult art of raising African violets, and for many years donated these to St. Cecelia parish for rummage sales. She is still known to some people in Clare as the “African violet lady.” She was an accomplished photographer. She loved music and had a beautiful singing voice. For years, she was a member of the Resurrection Choir, which sang at funerals at St. Cecilia’s. Her children still remember that she sang constantly while working around the house. Her favorite was “O Danny Boy.” Love—for God, for her family, and for life—was a central theme in her life. She is survived by her six children: Jeanne Kendall, of East Lansing, Michigan; Joan Kendall, of Grand Haven, Michigan; George Kendall, III, of Grand Marais, Michigan; Marilyn Kendall of Napanee, Ontario; Thomas Kendall, of Victoria, British Columbia; and Carolyn Marcuccio of Brockport, New York. She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents and all her siblings, seven of them: Five brothers, Edward Hammis, Albert Hammis, Philip Hammis, Ralph Hammis, and John Hammis, Jr., who died in infancy; two sisters, Dorothy Black and Marian Corbat. She outlived everyone in her generation of her family and her husband’s. In high school, she once sang “The Last Rose of Summer” for a talent show, and in old age commented wryly that now she was the last rose. She gave her children many gifts, but above all, love. May her memory be eternal. Visitation and Services will be held on Monday, November 9, 2015 at Our Lady of Hope Parish - St. Cecilia Site. Visitation will be from 10:00 A.M. until Funeral Mass at 11:00 A.M. led by Rev. Prentice A. Tipton, Jr.. Burial to follow in the St. Cecilia Catholic Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Grace Hospice. Arrangements were handled by the Clare Chapel of Stephenson-Wyman Funeral Home. On-line guestbook at www.stephenson-wyman.com

Genevieve Mary Margaret Kendall

March 12, 1916 - November 4, 2015