ABOUT THE KENNYS
Cliff Kenny was born and reared in eastern rural Ontario, Canada, the area known on both sides of the border as the picturesque Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River. He came from a large and strictly religious family. He farmed for nearly thirty years, and then left Canada to study theology in the United States. Laying aside his former fundamentalist beliefs, he left college to take up a career as a licensed painting contractor in California’s housing boom of the 1950s. He and Laura June met and were married in 1964. In 1972, he returned to Canada with his family. For fifteen years, he owned and operated a small corporation serving the tourist industry. While still very active in business, he undertook extensive volunteering and community service, including hospice volunteering. Upon retirement in 1987, volunteering became his full-time avocation. In 1991, he was named Hospice Volunteer of the Year for the Kingston, Ontario, Hospice. Then in 1997, Cliff and Laura June moved back to California and continued with new volunteering ventures. In 1998, Cliff learned to use a computer and wrote his memoir, titled Escape From Fundamentalism (unpublished). He is now working on a book about volunteering in hospice, tentatively titled The Path to Redemption: Serving Others, as well as writing for this web site. Returning to Southern California in 2003, along with Laura June, he began hospice volunteering with Kaiser-Permanente, and they became a Bereavement Support Group Facilitators in 2005. He is a Grave’s Disease and prostate cancer survivor, so has looked death in the face more than once. His hobbies are reading and gardening.
Laura June Kenny, although born in Washington State in the worst year of the Great Depression, grew up in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and was passed around among three families. All the children in her birth family—her three brothers, one sister and Laura June herself appeared as extras in movies, and Laura June was most often seen in the old “Our Gang Comedies,” now dubbed “The Little Rascals.” After graduating high school, she attended the University of California at Berkeley, then U.C.L.A., finally graduating from California State University at Los Angeles, with a B.Ed. and Master’s degree in school administration. Her teaching career spanned thirty-six years during which she taught every grade, Kindergarten through grade eight, plus Head Start for two years, and taught special education at Queen’s University briefly. Along with her husband Cliff, she volunteered with many organizations over the past thirty-five years, but her deepest commitment has always been in the field of hospice and palliative care.
Laura June began study of hospice and palliative care in 1983-1984, took courses mainly in hospital settings as early as 1983-1984, then volunteering there began in 1984. She met Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in 1985, and after attending one of her week-long workshops, became Dr. Kubler-Ross’ contact person in Ontario for nine years until the physician retired from public life due to illness. Elisabeth and Laura June became friends, corresponded and talked on the phone about Laura June’s work in hospice and her teaching of both nurses and hospice volunteers. When breast cancer struck Laura June in 1989, Elisabeth encouraged her as she underwent surgery and radiation treatments. After retirement from teaching, Laura June began writing columns and feature articles for a Canadian newspaper. Then upon moving to eastern California, she wrote a weekly column for a Nevada newspaper for nineteen months. She and Cliff maintained a web site for twenty months about life in the desert and life in general. In 2003, she began the writing of her memoir about growing up in Hollywood, being in movies, and having been a foster-child. It is titled Fleeing the Fates of the Little Rascals. She frequently gives lectures and makes appearances to tell what life was really like for children who appeared in the movies of the 1930s.
Between them, Cliff and Laura June have seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. For fun, they enjoy swimming a half-mile of laps three times a week, dancing when the occasion arises, watching old movies, and cooking, baking and canning in their tiny kitchen. Writing for this web site, and for Laura June’s blog, www.what-the-walrus-said.blogspot.com are added joys!
For more information about Laura June's Hollywood career, please visit the following websites:
http://mystsisters.com/speaker-bureau3.html,
http://celebrities-home.com/laurajunekenny.htm and http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1V67ERIGO9TCG?ie=UTF8
The Kennys have often lectured on the work of hospice and end-of-life issues in both Canada and at venues in Oregon and California. They welcome invitations to speak to groups of any size about this important subject.
CONTACT INFO
FAX : 818-362-2258
Email: casarosapaz@juno.com .
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