Gayle Raymond Kennedy

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Kennedy, Gayle Raymond Gayle was surrounded by friends and family at her birthday party #89 !! Gayle died peacefully in her sleep seven weeks later, March 27. Signs of dementia became evident about three years earlier. In October 2018 Gayle moved into a memory care apartment in Yorkshire of Edina. Her condition worsened and then accelerated the last three weeks of her life. She was preceded in death by her parents Lonnelle Lovejoy and Clinton Beaumont Raymond and her sister Joy Hammers. Gayle was born in Penn Yan, NY, grew up in Ithaca, NY, graduated from Cornell University, married George in 1953 after his graduation from Cornell, lived in Aberdeen, MD, Glendale, OH, Springfield, IL, Deephaven, MN, Mexico City, and back to Ithaca, NY. Gayle's mother was her first piano teacher. In her early teens she studied with a Cornell professor. When the professor moved back to England she invited Gayle to spend her gap year before Cornell as her assistant at the Badmitton School for Girls in Bristol, England. With her ear for music and perfect pitch Gayle sang alto in the Cornell Sage Chapel choir, church choirs in Ithaca, Glendale, Springfield, Wayzata Community Church and in choral groups in Bel Aire, MD, Mexico City, Minnetonka Choral Society, and finally in the Yorkshire of Edina choir practices. Gayle taught English in Ridgemont Junior High. She volunteered as a docent at the MIA and at the Cornell Botanic Gardens. She was deeply involved with the Maya Society of Minnesota, the League of Women Voters and the Osher Lifetime Learning Institute. Gayle made lifelong friendships easily and hosted friends from her grade school, high school, Cornell, Ithaca, and from the four corners of the US (literally), and from England, France, Spain, Mexico, Chile, and Kazakhstan. She became a good tour guide for the many friends and family that visited in Mexico City 1969-70. As a founding member of the Peru Crew (hiked the Inca Trail in 1981), she shared further travels to the canals of England, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, plus the South West and the North Shore. Independent travels included Canada, Central and South America, several Caribbean Islands, Europe, and Kazakhstan. Gayle is survived by her husband, George; her son, Clint (Karen and grandsons Robert and George), her son, Beau (Laura and granddaughter Dallas), nieces Janet Kennedy, Gayle Wilhelmi and nephews Peter Kennedy, David Hammers and Mark Hammers. Gayle's life will be celebrated on Friday, May 24 at 11:00, in the Chapel of Wayzata Community Church. The family extends sincere gratitude to Visiting Angel, Nickie Mork, the marvelous staff at Yorkshire of Edina and Grace Hospice. Memorials preferred to the Minneapolis Institute of Art or the Cornell Botanic Gardens (124 Comstock Knoll Dr. Ithaca, NY 14850).

Published on May 12, 2019