I received this e-mail from a young man that Gary was friends of their family when he lived in Delaware, they went to the same Church we all went to, First Baptist Church of Frederica.
It is so nice I asked his permission to post it on the Blog.

John,

Hello. I hope you and your family are doing well. I was deeply saddened to hear of Gary's death. He was an admirable person and somebody who I will always remember for his kindness and distinct personality. I feel it is safe to say that the entire Rowley family would agree with me.

Gary although he probably did not know it, was a huge influence in my life as a teenager. My family attended church in Frederica the same time as Gary. Gary and my Father Bob Rowley were friends. My father often consulted with Gary when he needed advice on things like do-it-yourself auto repairs or small engine fixes. Gary always seemed to know what was wrong where others were stumped and was always willing to help. As a teenager I was impressed with his knowledge of such things and took an interest in trying to fix things myself. Many years later I am still an amature but credit what I do know to Gary. My father bought me my first car when I was 16 and it needed a few very expensive repairs. The repairs them self would cost more money in labor than the car was worth. Gary agreed to fix the car provided we got the parts he needed. A new clutch, timing belt and various other things and my first car was ready for the inspection lane. I learned two things from Gary that day. The first is that he probably had better things to do with his time than to be fooling around with my junk car yet he helped anyway. When I am able to help somebody and am not sure if I am willing I always think of how Gary fixed my first car. The second I learned that day was not to be afraid to try things myself. Two years later I joined the Air Force and spent 4 1/2 years fixing the C-5's at Dover Air Force Base. The picture in the photo on your blog my be a plane that I later did work on. It is reasonable to say that Gary indirectly worked on those aircraft through inspiring me to do it. Who knows how many other people that Gary inspired or influenced. Things like that don't always come to be discovered but I believe there are probably many other people who have similar memories of Gary. I ran into Gary a few times though out the years I was stationed in Delaware. I was always happy to see him. If there is anything I can ever do to help a friend or family member of Gary's please do not hesitate to let me know.

Sincerely,

Brent Rowley
Havelock, NC

Gary’s Birthday
January 22nd 2009 would have been Gary’s 51st birthday, it’s been about seven months since he was murdered, you were a good son Gary.
In this picture it looks like Gary’s celebrating his eleventh birthday.
Happy Birthday Gary, Love Mom & Dad.

THE LAST TIME I SAW GARY ALIVE

The last time I saw Gary Alive, Sunday June 15th [Fathers Day], Gary made arrangements to meet us [Helen and Me] at Sonny’s Barbeque on Merritt Island to give me my fathers day gift, with his family. We had a pleasant lunch and met others whom we know from church and had fellowship with them. Gary did not know that Darryl was out of prison, we didn’t know either, the only time I locked my doors when I went out was when Darryl was out of prison. I do now, my life has been changed for the worse.Helen asked sharon if she had heard from Darryl, she said "no".Monday June 16th Helen went into the closet to get something and noticed that the guns that Gary had stored here because he was afraid of Darryl breaking into his house and getting the guns as he had several times previously.We wanted to get in touch with Gary at work but were told by Sharon that we couldn’t because he was out in the field. We wanted to ask Gary if he had come to our house and retrieved the guns. Helen called Gary at home repeatedly and around 5:00 PM he finally called us back when he got home from work. I told him the guns were missing and he told me that he hadn’t taken them and to call the police. I called the Merritt Island Sheriff’s office and they sent a Deputy to our house. I gave the deputy the serial numbers of the guns that were stolen, while I was talking to the deputy Gary called to tell me his truck was missing. I told the deputy that he would be receiving a call about a brown Ford truck that was stolen.The deputy said even though I was the victim of the crime, he had to talk to Gary because he was the owner of the guns. I gave him Gary’s phone number and he left, he called a few minutes later and asked I had another number he could reach Gary at because he didn’t answer the phone I told him that was the only number Gary had and he said “I’ll have to go to his house and talk to him. If you read the newspaper article in this blog you know the rest of the story.

A Stop At The Cemetery
Denise and Ray bought a Southern Magnolia tree to be planted in Gary’s name at our new church building while they were down here for Gary’s funeral.
http://www.fbcsb.org/index.html
The plaques were put on the memorial trees at our new church building this week, Helen and I took some pictures.

On the way home from church today we decided to stop at the cemetery for the first time and I took some pictures, very sad. Amanda must have been there and left this photograph.

This is a picture taken at Amanda's graduation, Gary was always bragging to me and every else I'm sure, how smart she is. She is, always getting A's on her report cards.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 is almost here, this will be our first Christmas without Gary. It will be hard, we always spent Christmas with Gary and his family. It will be a bleak Christmas for us. I was getting the Christmas lights out to decorate the outside of the house and Helen said to me, “don’t bother I just don’t feel like even decorating this Christmas“ I just put a small lighted wreath on the front of the house.
We had a Veterans celebration at the clubhouse in November and we had to leave early, looking at a video of the decorated caskets and hearing taps played was to much for us, we had to go home. We are getting better at putting it all behind us but sometimes the memories flood over us. Helen is sleeping better but she still has to take a sleeping pill occasionally.
Every day we can forget a little longer, the spaces between thinking about Gary get a little further apart. We are coping better every day. We drive by the cemetery where Gary is laid to rest on the way to church once in a while, and all the memories flood back. We don‘t say anything but I know what Helen is thinking and I am thinking the same thing, should we stop. We haven’t visited his grave site yet but we have talked about it, one of these days we will stop.
We praise the LORD for our family, they keep in touch with us and each other frequently, and our church has been so supportive. We have been keeping active and going out to eat and to events with our friends here where we live and at church , that helps a lot. We still get visits from our neighbors and friends here in the park where we live, giving us support and comfort.
Helen & Jack, Gary’s Mom & Dad

Memories of Gary by Denise

Gary And Denise ready to go to Bible School

Gary,Ron, Suzie Harper, Denise,

The girl nextstore & Butch Harper at Nana Harpers on Easter Sunday

From Denise

“I have always wanted to write something in Gary’s memory. It has always been on my mind that there is not an entry from me, his sister. To this day I have not been able to view his blog and read any of the entries from others because of the pain and sadness it brings me. It still leaves me upset for days. Someday I hope to put my feelings in writing for others to read. However, for now I can say that I know what it is to truly have a broken heart.
Gary I love you and miss you.”
Your sister, Nisey
Denise L. Di Filippo

Hey Pop-pop
I promised you last time I was down visiting that I would write you a something to put in your blog about Uncle Gary, and I've been thinking about him alot and all the fun that he was, and I started to remember some funny stories. So here
are a few memories from me...
I know that we all remember Uncle Gary as the uncle with all the toys, and I was just thinking about the fun things my family would do when we would visit uncle Gary. I remember a while ago My mom, sister Diana, and I were all watching home video's one weekend when we were home from college. We came across one video of all of us at Uncle Gary's house in Delaware. Uncle Gary had this tiny go-cart that he got out one day to entertain us kids. I think he was more entertaining himself by driving the thing at full speed and letting us kids try to chase him.
I remember I was probably four or five years old and running with all my might
trying to catch that thing....none of us every did get close...but not many
people could keep up with Uncle Gary when there was a motor involved.
Uncle Gary has probably had about 30 go carts, cars, boats, unusually fast
lawnmowers, and motorcycles that I can remember in my lifetime, but by far my favorite one was the motorized wheelchair. One time my familiy went down to visit Nanna and Pop-pop in Florida and headed over to Uncle Gary's house, we parked the car got out and walked towards the garage. Of course inside the
garage was none other than a motorized wheelchair that Uncle Gary had gotten out of some poor handicapped person's garbage and fixed. I'll never forget watching Amanda take the thing out to show us how great it worked as Uncle Gary looked on with pride at his latest unusual fixer upper toy. Nanna told us later on, long after the thing had broken for good, that some of the neighbors thought one of the kids had gotten hurt. I can't help to think that Uncle Gary probably got a huge kick out of his kids cruising around the neighborhood in a motorized wheel chair.
I also remember probably my favorite memory of Uncle Gary and his speed boat. The one he got when he moved to Florida. I was probably twelve and Diana was thirteen.



Uncle Gary took me, Diana and my mom all out on the boat and, as illegal as it was, encouraged me and Diana to drive it. I'll never forget Diana gets' behind the wheel and, of course in true Diana fashion, floors the thing within an inch of it's life (or so we thought). I remember Uncle Gary laughing and saying "Is that all you got? Let me show you how you drive." Uncle Gary then takes over and of course out does the infamously wreckless Diana by scaring the living daylight out of me and racing all over the river at Mach 1 speeds. I also remember a time when Uncle Gary took us out on the speed boat and we went tubing. I got on the tube and he "took it easy on me" (I lasted about 5.3 seconds before I was flying in the air into the water.) Once I had had enough of Uncle Gary's driving we gave Diana a go on the tube. I think Uncle Gary always knew he could push Diana really far before she would get scared so Uncle Gary always went faster with Diana and scarier. I remember when Uncle Gary got driving Diana was laughing and holding on tight. Of course Uncle Gary took that as a challenge to see how fast he could go with a person attached to his speed boat. He then floored it, almost immediately (and I will never forget this) Diana's eye's got as big as dinner plates, she flew off the tube about 5 feet
into the air and cartwheeled two times over the water before splashing in.
Uncle Gary was cracking up and sped on feeling very accomplished for beating
Diana. You would think Diana would have learned her lesson but it took a few
more times of being drug behind the boat trying to jet ski before Uncle Gary won and Diana gave up.
One more thing that has given me alot of encouragement since Uncle Gary's
funeral is a verse I came across. The day of his funeral many of us recieved a
red rose from his casket. I took mine and, just without thinking where, I
placed it in my Bible to press that day. The next day I opened my Bible to the
rose and looked at the only verse underlined on the page where the rose was
placed. The verse that was underlined was Psalm 147:3, it states, "He heals
the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds." I was in awe that that was the
verse, out of all the verses in my Bible, that God brought me to. It was just
what I needed at that time. It just goes to show that God is in control and is
looking out for us and is ready to heal and comfort when we need Him most.
No matter how busy Uncle Gary was he always had time for his family, and always showed us a good time. In true Kenney fashion Uncle Gary was a person who had a great sense of humor, a huge heart, and love for us all. He will truly be missed, but we can take comfort in the fact that he's racing around heaven
waiting for us to meet up with him so he can show us how fast he can go now in
his perfect heavenly body and show us all a thing or two.
Pop-pop I hope this is something you can add to your blog. I really appreciate
you writing it and putting time into helping us all remember how much fun and what an amazing person Gary was. I'm praying for you and Nanna everyday and I know God will heal and comfort. I love you and Nanna so much and I hope I can see you both soon!!
Love Bethany