Uncrowned Community Builders

A Buffalo resident, the former Carole A. Kennedy started playing the piano at the age of five. Her parents, Lee and Eula Kennedy, encouraged and nurtured her talent. Under the tutelage of Reverend W.B. Seals, Professor James Stuart and Mrs. Rosalie McKinney Smith, she developed her skills and her inborn talent meshed with her training making her an accomplished musician.

Carole developed s a singer through the efforts of Mr. Connie Copeland and she sang as a child with the Junior Coir. As she increased her piano skills, she was pressed in to service by Mrs. Lillian Beckham and she became the musician for the Junior Choir. Eventually, Carole played for all the St. John choirs.

She attended Public School 41 and Lafayette High School. She also studied at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo State College and Daemen College. She was co-founder of the Var-Son Community Choir and the Western New York Chapter of Gospel Music Workshop of America. She was co-instructor of the All-College Gospel Choir at Buffalo State.

Carole directed the UVSJ biennial concerts from 1980-1988: A New Beginning, Promises of God, The Rapture, Rejoice, and No Greater Love.

Both members of the Gospel Music Workshop, Carole and Vanetta Fields ,a close friend,who had relocated to Australia, were planning to establish an an International Gospel Music Workshop ( IGMW) in Melbourne, Australia..

She was a pianist at the Tried Stone Baptist Church, Friendship Baptist Church and First Shiloh Baptist Church and was minister of music at St. John Baptist Church. She taught music in the Buffalo schools for 17 years and also gave private lessons.
Her dedication to the musical craft was recognized and she received awards from the City of Buffalo, SJBC, and other community organizations.

Carole was the wife of Robert and mother of Michele, Michael and Jeffrey. She is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.