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

GARY KENNEY

GARY B. KENNEY MERRITT ISLAND Gary B. Kenney, 50, of Merritt Island, devoted husband, father, and son, died suddenly on Mon day evening, June 16, 2008. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Sharon, a daughter, Amanda; son, Joshua; his mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. John Kenney Jr., of Merritt Island; his brothers, Craig, John and Ronald, and his sister, Denise. Visitation at Wylie-Baxley Funeral Home Friday June 20th, 6 - 8 p.m., with a memorial service at Wylie-Baxley Chapel on Saturday, June 21st at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers please send dontatons to Garys nephew, Jason Kenney, who is a missionary to Chile, c/o Macedonia World Baptist Missions, Inc., PO Box 519, Braselton, GA 30517.Published in FLORIDA TODAY on 6/19/2008.

GARY'S LIFE IN DELAWARE

Gary with Pastor Ingram at a picnic in the Worthington's back yard.

GARY’S LIFE IN DELAWARE
[Abridged Version]
Gary was transferred when he lived in Pennsylvania to Delaware by the Firestone store that he worked for in Trenton, he had asked for the transfer.
He moved into an apartment in Dover and worked at the Firestone store in Dover and later bought a trailer in Dover. He was soon dissatisfied with that job and started applying for jobs in the area. He applied at George & Lynch a concrete plant as a truck mechanic. He was hired and started working there, he then started looking for a house in the area.
He bought a run down farmhouse on two large lots in the area and moved into it. The house was barely livable so he started to make improvements. Before he was done he had completely gutted the house and rebuilt it inside, he sided the outside of the house with vinyl siding and put in new windows.

DON & MARSHA LaDuc

During this time he had met Don & Marsha LaDuc, Don ran a surplus store for Nanticoke Home’s, a home builder in the area. Don and Gary became best friends. Gary would stop at the store often and buy surplus building supplies from Don This made the renovating of the house much cheaper. I think he sided the whole house with siding he bought at the surplus store. Every time they would finish a house they would bring all the leftover supplies to the store and Don would sell them.
George & lynch were supplying concrete for new runways at the Dover air base, whenever the concrete was rejected the drivers would call Gary at work and he would rush home and meet them there where he had already formed a new driveway at his house and a slab for the garage. This way he poured all this concrete for just tips to the drivers. It was a lot of concrete, a very large driveway and a 28’ x 28” slab for the garage.

Gary could figure most things out, but building the garage scared him so he called his brother Jack in Michigan to come down and help him. Gary sent the plans to Jack and he made up a material list and Gary had all the material delivered to the site.

Jack came down with a couple of friends and put up the shell of the garage. Gary made a second floor he wanted us [Helen & Me] to move into when I retired, which we did before we moved to Florida. Gary worked hard with a lot of help, and covered the shell with plywood siding, and put a roof on it. He later sided the garage with vinyl siding from Don's surplus store

The building was now closed in and the inside could be finished at a more leisurely pace. Helen and I would go down almost every weekend and stay and help him then go to church with Gary and his family Sunday then drive back to Pennsylvania Sunday evening.
I could not begin the name all the friends that helped Gary with this project. Gary had a lot of friends that he had helped with various projects and they helped him whenever he needed help.
After this he decided to replace a small room on the side of the house and make it into a master bedroom with a bath, this was a big job but that didn't faze Gary, he went ahead at nights and weekends and finished it. He and I also put central heat in the house, it only had a kerosene heater in the living room when he moved in.
One day on a Sunday we were in the driveway and Gary looked up at the house and said that bedroom on the second floor needs a window, He said “come-on lets go up to Lowe's and get one“, before I went back to Pennsylvania that evening that bedroom had a window. If you would give Gary a bucket of drywall mud and a couple tubes of caulk he could do any home improvement. This is just the way Gary did things.
I know I have left a lot out of this story, but I don’t want to make it to long.

Shirley and Pastor Ingram at the Space Center, notice the launch pad in the background.

Comment by Shirley Ingram I remember a lot of the Delaware story, it seemed Gary was his happiest when he had a project in process. But it was always fun to get the grand tour after the completion, he was really excited and rightly so. I am Pastor Ingrams wife and we enjoyed the Kenney family in our church for many years. Gary always ready to help or give advice to assist in any need. He had many friends and will be missed. Shirley Ingram

GARY'S JET BOAT

Thanks to Ron for these pictures

I was going to put this in Memories of Gary but this deserves a spot all to itself.
When Gary lived in Delaware, he always had a boat of some kind, he would buy and sell boats as the spirit moved him. If he saw a boat in someone’s yard that had not moved for awhile he would stop and ask if they wanted to sell it. He would bicker with them for a couple of days and if he thought was worth the price he would buy it, then sell it when he got tired of it. I can’t remember all the boats he had but one stands out in my memory. It was a Slick Craft jet boat about sixteen feet with a 454 Chevrolet engine all chrome with big header exhaust pipes [boy was it loud] when he bought it was not running right. It turned out that it needed a cam shaft. That did not bother Gary, he ordered a full race cam shaft from a speed shop and put it in.

He then found out the boat would only go sixty miles an hour so he sent the jet assembly to Ohio to be reworked, he wanted it to go at least seventy miles an hour. He was always trying to get me to go out for a ride in the Delaware Bay, what a ride, sixty miles an hour over a bumpy road, one ride was enough for me., I came home hurting and exhausted.
One day he talked me into going with him to the Murder Kill River [a Dutch name that means something?] that runs from Dover to the Delaware Bay, how much trouble can you get into in a little river? We were going down the river at a slow pace when we came to a sharp turn to the right in the river, the redneck in Gary surfaced, watch this, he gave it everything the boat had and we started roaring along when we made the turn, a wind was coming up the river and we went airborne. We ended about thirty feet into the marsh. What to do? we walked through the marsh in black muck up to our necks till we found a house, Gary knocked and the man that came to the door was ready to shut the door in our face till Gary explained to him what had happened, he brought a phone to the door and Gary called a friend to come and pick us up.
To make a long story short it took a gang [the Ingram's and the LuDuc's] with pry bars another boat, a chain fall and the rest of the day to get the boat out of the marsh inch by inch.

THE LAST PICTURE TAKEN OF GARY

THE LAST PHOTO TAKEN OF GARY
This snapshot was taken by my granddaughter Aniliese, Saturday May 31 2008 at Durango’s Steakhouse Restaurant in Cocoa beach, Gary took us there to celebrate Amanda’s graduation from high school. We then all went outside to view a Shuttle Launch. I feel this is the last photo taken of Gary before he was murdered. This photo has not been changed in any way it is just as it came from the camera.
Aniliese was visiting us from Michigan and she was here through all the commotion that followed Gary’s murder, I’m sure its something she will never forget.
We had flown her back with us to Florida when we came back from her sister Amy’s high school graduation in Michigan.
Our son Ron was downloading pictures from her camera after Analiese came home and found this picture. Gary looks troubled, this is because he is, he had been going through some personal troubles that would not go away and they were about to come to a head. Little did he know that all his troubles would be over soon.
I will leave justice to the court system and pray that it will be done.
As always, Gods will be done.

“THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”
Matthew 6:10

GARY IN HAPPIER TIMES

The top left picture was taken at Nana Harper's 80th birthday.

The other is a picture of Gary and Josh horsing around.

This is Gary before the worries overtook him.

The bottom pictures were taken by Gary's brother Ron on a vacation back in

These are pictures of Gary before his family troubles overtook him.

Gary's brother Ron wrote this.
In 2006 we were visiting my parents in Florida and I went to a children’s soccer game with Gary. At the time Gary was working out with weights (as you can see). While we were there Gary and I took a motorcycle ride. He rode his super fast sport bike and I rode the much slower street/dirt bike. Florida does not have a helmet law, although with my limited riding skills, I wore one. I remember Gary riding in front of me with his flattop hair cut, cool sunglasses and newly acquired muscles. He looked much tougher than I did!
While we were at the soccer game I told him to show me the “gunboats” and he struck this pose. This picture really illustrates something about Gary. When he did something, he gave it his all. I’m not sure how much he weighed in this picture, but he must have been pushing 200. When he died he couldn't’t have weighed much more than 150. Why? He was running six miles a day. He had taken on the body of a long distance runner.

Gary's Dad;

I wish Gary looked like that because he was running, Helen and I were very close to Gary before this happened. He came to our house on the way home from work often, and talked to Helen almost every day. He had asked Helen and me for advice about problems he was having, he was talking to me about very personal problems. He had never done this before, I gave some advice that was right, but was the wrong advice for his problem. I don’t think if I had given other advice it would have mattered. What happened was going to happen, the detectives told us Darryl was going to murder Gary whether it was now or later it was going to be done.

Gary’s spirit about things will surely be missed.