Cracker's Bend School


CRACKER'S BEND SCHOOL




The above school pictures were taken at "White Oak Grove School", Cracker's
Bend, Morgan County, Illinois. Top photo: Second from right in the first row is my grandmother, Bertha Roena Kennedy,
born 9 Apr 1899 at Cracker's Bend, the daughter of James Oliver and Louisa Ann Goodpasture Kennedy.
She is Second from the left in the bottom photo. Bertha was married first to William Delaney and second to John Delaney.
She was the mother of four children.

My grandmother was a woman who lived before her time. She could do anything she set her mind to and did it very well.
She loved raising white hogs and New Hampshire red chickens for her own use and for sale.
She took me to raise at six days old. She not only farmed, but owned and operated a restaurant in Jacksonville
called the Black Cat - name later changed to the "Do Drop Inn".
The restaurant was located behind the old post office in Jacksonville.
After moving to Jacksonville in 1950, she started a boarding house in the 400 block of South East St.
A few years later she bought the old "Masters Mansion" on Vandalia and S. East Street
in South Jacksonville. She took care of 30 residents and was known by the residents
as "Mom Delaney" and to her grandchildren as "Granny". Anyone visiting her home went away munching
on a home-made cookie, a piece of pie or a delicious steaming hot sweet roll.
Like her mother, Lou, she was a wonderful cook.

When her children were small, she worked for "Old Famous N Bar" in St. Louis for a while.
She came to the attention of management and because of her tall slender frame was hired
to model their line of women's clothing. She lived to be age 84, died from pneumonia
and is buried with her parents, J.O. and Lou Goodpasture Kennedy and
her beloved brother Charlie in Arcadia Cemetery in Morgan County, Illinois.



Submitted by Roena Henne


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