Pearl Ray Kenney's Obituary
Pearl Ray Kenney died on Saturday, June 18, 2022, at Chateau de Notre Dame in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was born on March 27, 1937, in New Orleans to the late Estella Aguilar Kenney and Vernon Marchant Kenney, who left his family before Pearl Ray was born and whom she never met. Pearl Ray was the youngest of eight children, all of whom preceded her in death: sisters Myrtle Bell Kenney Roberts Ribaul and Jeanette Kenney Burkstaller, and brothers Vernon, Donald Clarendon Kenney, Oliver David Kenney, Jean Merritt Kenney, and Marchant Akin Kenney. She is survived by a myriad of nieces, nephews, and their children.
Pearl Ray graduated from West Jefferson High School in 1956 and attended college for two years at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. Delta Airlines hired her as a stewardess in 1958, a coveted and highly competitive job for a young woman. Pearl Ray flew around the world for business and pleasure for more than 30 years. She visited almost every continent and brought exotic souvenirs home for family and friends. Always the trailblazer, Pearl Ray also designed and supervised the building of three houses. Her last home was in Folsom, where she enjoyed the peace and quiet of the woods and became known to friends and neighbors as “Miss Pearl”. After her retirement from Delta, Pearl Ray discovered politics, which became her passion, and she was active in the St. Tammany Parish Democratic Party until failing health made participation untenable.
Pearl Ray was fiercely independent and lived life out loud. She was funny, kind, rambunctious, and curious about her world. She was also stubborn, outspoken, and sometimes created rifts between family and friends with her opinions. To know her was to love her, however, because at her core, she was a sweet person, everyone’s favorite eccentric aunt, and she always brought the best food on road trips. At the end of her life, she most loved babies, ice cold Coca-Cola, Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits, LSU football, and President Barack Obama.
Her friends and family will schedule a celebration of her life for early fall of this year. For those who would like to commemorate Pearl Ray’s life, the family suggests donations in her memory to the Red Bluff Baptist Church in Folsom, https://rbbclife.org/; or the Democratic National Committee, https://democrats.org/.
E. J. Fielding Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements. Please share a memory on the Tribute Wall at www.ejfieldingfh.com.
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