Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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I was awful fascinated by politics. I don't know, I guess it was just - it fascinates some people more than others, but I was fascinated by it. I'd get a - and I'm no great orator. I was a good campaigner. If I made up my mind to campaign, I could campaign. I liked it. And I enjoyed being in the assembly. I thought twenty years was enough. But I enjoyed that. Q: What about the Hughes-Wilson contest back in the teens? Do you remember anything about that or were you still a little young to . . . A: Well I was - wasn't eight until the following December. I can't recall reading in the paper about Hughes going to bed thinking that he was elected and woke up beaten, you know. Of course we all knew Woodrow Wilson. You read about him. He was our wartime president after 1916. I remember the Armistice. I remember going downtown for - that would be 1918, so I'd only be ten the following December. I remember going downtown for that. We lived on Washington Avenue in that duplex house. There was a Lowell family that lived on the other side. And they had a car. We went down with them to the parade. I liked to go downtown and watch the parades. I remember that as a schoolboy. Even at Horace Mann, they had the Decoration Day parade in Upper Alton. I remember that, they still have it. The school kids would march. When I went to Horace Mann I marched in that. It seemed like the second, third and fourth graders would march in that, carry their little flags you know. And we'd go out to the Upper Alton Cemetery and they'd have services and then they'd have a speaker and then they'd play taps. There's some old Civil War soldiers are buried out there. It was just a Decoration Day. The Upper Alton Cemetery, that's still there, it's a beautiful place. Q: What about plays or dramatics of any sort? A: Well I was in a few plays at school. Q: Did you have any leads in any of them? A: Oh 1 was always a lesser - in the chorus line you might say - not necessarily the chorus line, but school plays, never no heavy plays or - my brother belonged to the Little Theater but I didn't. He was, I guess, the actor. I go to Little Theater plays. We go to plays down in St. Louis but I never - just school plays is all. I couldn't recall just what they were about. At St. Patrick's they might have had a religious tinge to them I suppose. And some Uncle Tom plays I suppose, and plays like that. St. Patrick's had a number of black students in it, and we all got along fine. But no plays or no heavy - oh, we'd debate, I belonged to a debating society. Q: Oh you did? A: In the high school. Just - it was no professional debating society, it was just a school discussion. I mean we never debated Alton High or Wood River High or any other parochial schools, we never done that at that time, at least I didn't do it. Now they might have done it. I doubt if they had done it when I was there. They do it now. But we never appeared at any organized debating discussions or . . . Q: Did you enjoy debate? A: Yea, yes. I used to argue a lot when I was a kid. I guess all kids do. But I enjoyed it. It seemed like I'd always end up taking the opposite side I guess. I don't know what made me do that because my mother and dad weren't too argumentative, but I suppose that was a trait that I must have acquired somewhere from either my Irish ancestors or my German ancestry.
I used to like to hear good talkers. Well this goes up to my first time in - one of the finest speeches that I ever heard was my first session in Springfield. A Democrat from Springfield, and that was in the two-and-one system, his name was Sullivan. He made a tremendous speech. I thought he was going to die on the floor, because they had to bring him water. There was a T. P. Sullivan, but that wasn't him. There was a T. P. Sullivan who ran the newspaper, I believe the one that was an Outlander newspaper, I think, up there, and he was that. But this guy was a terrific talker. At school debating I debated some and argued a lot. And worked a lot - I - I worked. I had to work. Even at Horace Mann I carried coal. I remember they paid me two dollars a week and my mother made me take a half a dollar back, she thought it was too much money, I remember that. (chuckles) Q: I'll be darned, well! What did they say when you came back with the fifty cents? A: Well they took it. (chuckles) Q: Oh they did? A: It wasn't anything I don't recall that. I remember that incident but what they said I don't - they didn't - they just laughed I guess. Q: Well I'll be darned. A: Rut I remember that incident and it wasn't too far from home. But it seems like when you asked that I believe that they took it and they gave me the - what they decided when I carried - I got a dollar and a half a week, and what they decided was when I had to carry coal the week in the winter when I carried coal, I got the fifty cents. I believe that's the ultimate of that. That's the first time I've thought of that in a long time. Your questions are good and they bring back memories and I figured that's what they'd be. SESSION 1, TAPE 1, SIDE 1 (CONTINUED) My parents both came from Edwardsville and - we used to go there a lot, by the way. Of course that was the county seat you know. The courthouse, that always offered a certain fascination. We went by interurban. We got on the interurban at Alton, that was the old Terminal, and went down to what they called Mitchell, and then we'd transfer to the Edwardsville. I guess it was coming back from Springfield, I think it used to go up to Peoria I believe, at one time. And we'd always go that way. My parents didn't have a car. Q: You say you visited Ireland and spent a couple, three weeks over there looking into your family background. Did you find much about the family then? A: Well not a lot, no. I found that my - well, I did find that my paternal grandmother was Mary Purcell and - now this - only the next part's only by legend, that she was related to some of the Purcells. Purcell is a big common name in Ireland. There was a Father Purcell, I believe, in that outfit. But there were some Purcells killed in the Easter Kevolution. Easter Rebellion, 1 think, is the proper word. And that's supposed to be some of her relatives. Now I've never - well I never bothered to prove it, but my grandfather came from Roscommon County, and 1 did find some of his - not any of his living relatives. I guess I could have, but I found some records of Bill Kennedy which was his father, which I guess would be my great-grandfather. I had never been to Germany. I've only got to Aachen in the war, but I - you wasn't looking up any of your relatives at that time.
Page 1: University of Illinois at Springfie
Page 4 and 5: ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORAL HIST
Page 6 and 7: Preface This oral history of Leland
Page 8 and 9: Volume I Leland J. Kennedy SESSION
Page 10 and 11: next to us was a duplex house and a
Page 12 and 13: Q: Were these family meals that she
Page 16 and 17: Q: Yes sir. (chuckles) What part of
Page 18 and 19: that much about it, about the makeu
Page 20 and 21: out and there was the number of my
Page 22 and 23: A: Well. Yes, I always remember one
Page 24 and 25: Q: Was it a paddle wheeler or what
Page 26 and 27: een that far back, in that era, may
Page 28 and 29: that wanted to take roomers or boar
Page 30 and 31: A: As you go by, that's the Alton W
Page 32 and 33: Q: Oh? Were you a pretty good corn
Page 34 and 35: A: Maybe it makes good talking to m
Page 36 and 37: A: The Fourth of July and Christmas
Page 38 and 39: A: I mean his wife is I think, and
Page 40 and 41: golden handshake. They'd give you m
Page 42 and 43: A: . . . and the twenty-five. But y
Page 44 and 45: day I would say that half of the fo
Page 46 and 47: Young Democrat convention, elected
Page 48 and 49: in Edwardsville, and you had to pay
Page 50 and 51: - and we were for Smith, and fighti
Page 52 and 53: work. I never was drafted for nothi
Page 54 and 55: more German than I was I guess. (la
Page 56 and 57: Of course there were war clouds han
Page 58 and 59: A: Twice a month. Q: Twice a month?
Page 60 and 61: There was neighbor against neighbor
Page 62 and 63: A: And they did, so that's . . . Q:
Page 64 and 65:
SESSION 4, TAPE 7, SIDE 2 Q: That w
Page 66 and 67:
' I 59 you couldn't get across that
Page 68 and 69:
A: Well they didn't have none of th
Page 70 and 71:
A: Oh no, never saw any. I saw some
Page 72 and 73:
VOTE FOR LELAND J. KENNEDY DEMOCRAT
Page 75 and 76:
Q: Now when you first went in did y
Page 77 and 78:
A: A port of embarkation or for sup
Page 79 and 80:
A: Oh yes. I'm sorry about that now
Page 81 and 82:
A: Alright. August. I'll tell you -
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And he got out before I did, but he
Page 85 and 86:
A: No no, never said a word. Oh the
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though. He was a good talker, and o
Page 89 and 90:
play cards or just talk. Women like
Page 91 and 92:
Q: Yes sir. A: We had a strike in s
Page 93 and 94:
Of course you'd have a lot of lawye
Page 95 and 96:
A: Well that was - that was the bes
Page 97 and 98:
polls in a particular city and he's
Page 99 and 100:
Q: Yes. A: Bond never did like bein
Page 101 and 102:
wife and family when you're out, or
Page 103 and 104:
of Illinois) library and muse aroun
Page 105 and 106:
A: Well legislative process, commit
Page 107 and 108:
A: Yes I think so, had a column. We
Page 109 and 110:
A: Well I recall - I guess they're
Page 111 and 112:
state central committeeman. Now sta
Page 113 and 114:
not an Italian name, but what those
Page 115 and 116:
Q: Oh? WOKZ in Alton, Illinois? A:
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This is going back, and I don't hav
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had twelve in the pool. I think it
Page 121 and 122:
Q: Oh is that right? A: Oh my first
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a federal gasoline tax thirty years
Page 125 and 126:
Q: No sir, no sir. Well let's see,
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they changed those desks after reap
Page 129 and 130:
Q: He started that in the 1951 sess
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That wasn't a bone of contention a
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Q: Oh I see. A: I think they'd do t
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Talking about lodging, 1'11 always
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his wife's sister. Of course they w
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A: Oh did she? Q: Yes. A: Well some
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And a lot of those people are all g
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I believe there's a lot of that fam
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Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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