Ken Hennessey

Profile Updated: October 10, 2019
Residing In: Mankato, MN USA
Spouse/Partner: Patti (Schehr)
Homepage: View Website
Occupation: n/a-disabled AND a retired printer
Children: Margaret Lynnise; 9-30-72
Kendra Leigh; 7-1-74
Kenneth Carl; 9-24-75
Evie Dawn; 8-29-77
Sharee More…Irene: 4-9-88
Military Service: nope
Comments:

The nut-shell version:
Disabled; 68 (2019); 5 children; 9 grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren; like suspense or action movies or DVD's; author of several books; Christian; organization freak; computer geek; unused college; 2nd marriage of 32 (2019) years; Minnesota to South Carolina to California to Minnesota.

Some have asked for greater details. Allow me to catch you up.

Through sheer persistence, I made it through school. We lived about a block from Washington elementary school until we moved to a farm and I was relocated to Roosevelt.

I went to Washington, then Lincoln in my middle teens where I met John Krause, who would become a life-long friend. We investigated our common interest in science together all the way through high school. He was the one to continue on with these pursuits.

I remember that seventh grade was when I began looking at girls differently. Dawn, you were my secret interest! During those junior high school days, I experienced the typical woes of being a pre-adolescent: hating my looks, bodily exploration, self-reinvention, authority disapproval, nicknames, and obsession with the opposite sex.

It wasn’t until my high school days that I made a few decisions that I believed would mold my future. God had in mind something much better than what I could have imagined at that moment, however.

When I graduated from high school, I went to a private, Christian college in South Carolina. At Bob Jones University I met Margaret Packer whom I later wed and brought four children into the world.

I taught high school students for a time immediately after marriage. I was actively involved with my local church and unwittingly depended upon my heritage for my spiritual needs. I seemingly had all the right words and actions to pass for a “Christian” but inwardly there was a void. Not until a preacher’s message sunk in through to my spirit did I actually depend on a finished work of redemption by Christ.

Our family moved to southern California where I started my printing career. This lasted about 20 years until God wanted my full attention.

A decision that evolved many years later into near calamity was made to purchase a motorcycle. I drove the “wheels” every day 30 miles to work and back home for nearly 17 years. From most everyone’s viewpoint, I was pressing my luck.

I had four children from my first marriage. My oldest, born in 1972, Margaret Lynnise, was named after her mom and two aunts. She has five children. Our second child, born in 1974, was named after me in case we didn’t have any boys: Kendra Leigh. She has one daughter. We did have the boy in 1975 so we named him after the two grandpas: Kenneth Carl. He has a boy and a girl. My last child born to Margaret and me was Evelyne Dawn, named after my mom. She was born in 1977. She has one son.

I remarried and had a daughter named Sharee Irene born in 1988 and became the step-dad to two sons Chad Michel Suchy and Wayne Robert Suchy.

Now, I'll tell what happened 7/17/97: I don’t remember much about the accident, but one of the last things that I do remember that I did before the accident was read my Father’s Day cards. Apparently, according to what I could glean from police reports, I worked one of my three jobs the night before July 17, 1997, from midnight to 5:00 AM and then went off to my second job from 7 AM until 2 PM (about 30 miles away from my home town.) On the trip back home that Thursday morning I plowed into a pick-up truck on the Ventura Freeway in Southern California. I did have some mobile DJ jobs lined up for the weekend, plus several more lined up through December (my third job).

I determined that I crashed into a quickly slowing Ford Pickup headed for LA, south-bound on the US 101 Freeway in Thousand Oaks in Southern California. I was driving an ’83 750cc Yamaha motorcycle. I was found on my back in the center divider. I had careened out of control into the center-divide retaining wall. Injuries reported at the scene included “basil skull fracture, fractured ribs and clavicle, and a collapsed lung.” I was transported to the nearby Los Robles ICU hospital where I remained in a coma for three days with a twisted brain stem and blood drainage from my left ear. My survival was unlikely, medically speaking.

I made very slow but steady progress in my recovery, sleeping most of the time but I did respond to commands ten days later. My lungs began clearing and the blood in the brain fluid began to dissipate although I continued to run a low-grade fever and I was taking antibiotics. The doctors were encouraged at this point. Patti was too! She had been told that I might not make it but if I survived through the weekend, I had a good chance. By July 29th, I was off the ventilator and was making efforts to speak.

On August 4, I was moved from the critical-care unit and on August 11 I was transferred for rehabilitation therapy to St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, California where I did a major portion of my physical rehabilitation from mid-August until mid-September. I remember I got used to using a walker but I had to spend about three hours a day navigating a wheelchair. Swallowing tests revealed problems and to this day I choke on tepid liquids or flaky foods. I saw the outdoors for the first time on the last day of August before I was transferred to a “rehab home” for a couple of months where my “cognitive” thinking and speech were ‘fine-tuned.’ I was allowed to stay with my family a few weekends during October the, finally, in early November, I got to go home.

School Story:

Too many to tell! One that stands out though is when John Krause and I "kidnapped" then Julie Kitzrow! We, of course, asked her mom's permission (so, technically, she was in on it too!)

Ken's Latest Interactions

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Ken Hennessey has a birthday today.
Feb
14
Feb 14, 2024 at 3:33 AM
Ken Hennessey posted a message.
Oct
01
Oct 01, 2023 at 1:12 PM

“Every birthday is an opportunity to step back and appreciate all the beautiful things we are Blessed with. Today we look back on a life well lived, and a year of challenges and growth." Looking forward to a future of limitless potential! My life wouldn’t be the same without your amazing energy. Thank you for all the joy you bring into my life. I wish you nothing less in return. You’ll always be younger than tomorrow. Don’t light the cake before I get there! Happy Birthday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Mmke73EQZ08&feature=endscreen

Ken Hennessey has left an In Memory comment for Connie Timme Campbell.
May
15
May 15, 2023 at 9:55 AM

Connie, and her brother, Bruce, were my neighbors across the street in grade school. We played together many times. Connie graduated with me but she was also in my kindergarten class. Rest in peace.

Ken Hennessey has a birthday today.
Feb 14, 2023 at 3:33 AM
Ken Hennessey posted a message.
Jan 08, 2023 at 4:25 PM

Milton we miss you bringing our precious bills to our mailbox--no one to blame! I had a birthday card pinned to the mailbox that's been hanging there for years just waiting for you. i give up. So, instead, my wish is that you have a good one!

Ken Hennessey posted a message. New comment added.
Dec 02, 2022 at 9:35 AM

Posted on: Dec 02, 2022 at 9:33 AM

Hap[py Birthday, my friend!

Ken Hennessey posted a message.
Nov 15, 2022 at 9:15 AM

I miss seeing you and Suzi. Still have your Bible Class CDs--they're awesome--thanks.

Ken Hennessey has a birthday today.
Feb 14, 2022 at 3:33 AM
Ken Hennessey posted a message.
Mar 29, 2021 at 11:11 AM
Ken Hennessey has a birthday today.
Feb 14, 2021 at 3:33 AM
Ken Hennessey has a birthday today.
Feb 14, 2020 at 3:34 AM
Dec 06, 2019 at 9:53 AM

To celebrate your birthday, I'm driving my virtual motorcycle around town with a big sign that says "Happy Birthday to my friend!"

Oct 10, 2019 at 8:27 PM
Ken Hennessey changed profile picture.
Oct 10, 2019 at 8:10 PM
Ken Hennessey has a birthday today.
Feb 14, 2019 at 3:33 AM
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Jan 09, 2019 at 4:58 PM
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Dec 10, 2018 at 9:57 AM
Dec 06, 2018 at 3:43 PM
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Dec 02, 2018 at 10:20 AM
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Mar 29, 2018 at 2:09 PM

Happy Birthday, or alles Gute zum Geburtstag

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Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Here is my first collage--I didn't want to upload a pile of pictures, but I can give you an idea who's who in the pictures. From left to right you see a picture of my children. And then there is the black and white of my wife and daughter with me. Beneath them is a series of three pictures with my wife. The bottom row: my grandson (who is now older!), my dad, and yours truly with a hairdo from one of his daughters
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
The second collage shows my school days. These are layed over my kindergarten picture. The first one is a color picture on the farm. To the right is a picture of the Mankato high school buses in the background with me leaning against a flag pole on the high school grounds. It was 16 in that picture. The first photo in the bottom row shows me just after graduation at college. The far right is probably how most people would remember me looking in high school. The color picture of me on the truck was my summer job with my dad.
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Here is another collage showing some important events in my life. The first one is the jacket to my demo CD of my DJ days. Then I see that I really did turn 40 years old! I spent a very treacherous weekend in the hospital after the accident. I was born at an early age. Here is a picture of the old hacienda on route 66. The last picture show with me as I look today.
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Here is kindergarten photo where yours truly got as close as he could to his first love: Mrs. Meyers. Her words: "His listening habits show improvement." It was all down-hill from there! See if you can spot Todd Wyatt, John Apitz, me, Lynn Nordgren,
Matt Peterson, Kirk Saiki, Clara Walters, Scott Melick, Margaret Hanson or Connie Timme.
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Nobody probably paid any attention to the back of their report card, but here it is...
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Fine looking trio--this is the first of several snapshots taken at the 40th reunion. Some have had some amateur retouching, but they give you the gist (is that a word?) of the fun we had.
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
This is the first in a series of memories--at least mine. I have informed most of the people in the pictures so that they can enjoy them There's allot--maybe you'll find some favorites.
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
She actually kissed this guy and I don't even think they're related!
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Matt and John
Posted: Dec 16, 2013 at 11:32 PM
A panoramic view--see yourself?