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Daily Speculations The Web Site of Victor Niederhoffer & Laurel Kenner Dedicated to the scientific method, free markets, deflating ballyhoo, creating value, and laughter; a forum for us to use our meager abilities to make the world of specinvestments a better place. |
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12/12/04
In Memory Of
Mildred Kenner (July 10, 1924-Dec. 12, 2004)
Mildred Kenner, artist, pilot and mother of the Collab, died at home
in Santa Monica, California, on Sunday. She was 80.
Millie was held dear throughout her life by her family and an
ever-widening circle of friends. Married at 28 to John Kenner, she had
two children, Laurel and Steve, whom she raised with great love and
devoted her considerable talents to giving them a head start. A fluent pianist,
she gave Laurel her first lessons, an introduction to music that sent Laurel on
a path to a college major and a lifetime of performance. She
taught both her children how to read, and spent thousands of hours taking them
to music, ballet and tennis lessons, and sewing their clothes. She helped found a
preschool in Santa Monica so that Laurel could attend, and led
Laurel's Girl Scout troop in Glendora, California, planning
unforgettable hikes, camping trips and fashion shows.
A woman of great intelligence and vitality, she enjoyed tennis and
once took a sledgehammer to the interior walls of a newly bought house
to make the living room more spacious. She earned a private pilot's
license in her free time as a young nurse in Hawaii. She mastered the
arts of homemaking, gardening and entertainment, delighting guests
with ethnic meals and stylish presentations. A learned gardener, she
filled the yards and patios of her homes with exotic succulents, ferns
and cymbidium orchids. She hosted many holiday gatherings during the
1950s, 1960s and 1970s at the Kenner residence at 10 Latimer Road,
Santa Monica Canyon.
She held a variety of responsible positions at hospitals in Santa Monica and
West Los Angeles.
In her later years, she developed her artistic talent and became
widely honored for her exceptional style. In her 40s, she designed and
wove fabrics on a large loom situated in the family living room. She
next turned her attention to pottery, inventing distinctive shapes and
glazes. Her best work came after age 50, when she learned the craft of
California Indian basket weaving. Her creations, based on
centuries-old techniques, were made from pine needles, palm leaves and
other "found" fibers she and John collected around Santa Monica. Her
baskets won many art fair awards and were displayed in galleries
throughout the West.
In 1980, Millie and John moved to Fallbrook, California, where she
became a member of the Fallbrook Art Gallery co-op. After John's death
in 1999, she lived in Fallbrook for five years. In November 2004,
shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer, she returned to Santa
Monica to settle in an apartment looking out on the beach and the
Malibu coast, where she had spent many happy days and sunsets with her
family.
Born in Portland, Oregon, Millie moved to Southern California as a
young girl with her parents, Elmer and Pearl Fields Bame, and her
brother, William. She is mourned by her surviving relatives: her
daughter, Laurel Kenner, whom she inspired with her love of life and
loved through thick and thin; her brother's widow and children, Louise
Bame of Santa Monica, Michael Bame of North Hollywood and Richard Bame
of Iowa; and two nieces, Christina and Barbara Dalton of Los Angeles.