This story first appeared Oct. 1

Flying home from California, there was an inflight documentary about Delores Huerta, the Latino activist who fought for farmers in California in the 1960s and ’70s. During the movie, my mom said sitting next to me, “Patricia and I helped organize the Grape Boycotts in Peoria back then. We marched in front of Kroger and IGA and held up signs.”

Patricia was local provocateur Patricia Kenny, who championed too many causes to count. In fact, she founded the West Bluff Word in part to thumb her nose at the establishment of her adopted home at the top of Farmington Hill across from Bradley Park.

“They fought with Bradley a lot about various things,” recalls eldest daughter Maeve Reilly.

The West Bluff Word, which Kenny founded in 1977, is now The Community Word. Patricia Kenny died Aug. 31. A mother of five who survived the death of her husband, Bradley astronomy professor Dr. John Kenny, Patricia was 84.

“We were all involved in some way,” said Deirdre Manna, the third of the five children in this particular Kenny clan. “She started the West Bluff Word because she didn’t like the fact people did not have an alternative news source.”

Preservation society

The West Bluff Word first focused on the historical significance of places in Peoria — and their preservation. Bradley University was buying up properties and tearing them down to expand its footprint on The Hilltop.

“Bradley kind of ran the West Bluff — the big gorilla,” Deirdre said. “Mom and Dad didn’t think tearing things down was right. She always did what she thought was right.”

Pat Kenny usually had a lot of things going on at once. And the monthly newspaper helped create her characteristic chaos. “When deadline was due, it was all hands on deck,” remembers Grainne Mahoney, the youngest Kenny kid. “Back then she’d lay it out on sheets (real-life cutting and pasting) and deliver it to the printer (in Springfield).”

Then her family and families of friends would deliver the Word to every door on the West Bluff. The first job for this reporter and my brother, Jeffrey, was delivering the Word door-to-door in West Peoria for our mother Rosemarie’s dear friend.

Pat and John Kenny were activists — political operatives. John was a delegate for Jimmy Carter. Patricia once worked for the Census Bureau.

The pair met in Manhattan, moved to St. Louis, then to South Carolina when John got a job at Clemson. That’s where their politics sharpened its point.

“It was the tail end of Jim Crow,” Maeve Reilly said. “There were Black waiting rooms and White waiting rooms. They went in to the Black waiting room.”

“They would intentionally sit in the Black-only parts of restaurants to prove a point,” adds Grainne.

Then the Kennys moved to Peoria in the late 1960s. And it didn’t take long for them to start stirring pots. “She was always fighting slumlords as they were creeping into our neighborhoods,” Grainne said. “She was so mad that both theaters were tore down (Rialto, which was demolished Downtown, and Varsity, which was scraped to build Campustown).”

Her Word

The WBW helped get the word out about what was happening in her community. With the likes of JoAnn Thomas, Pat Nemo, Sharon McBride and Karen Deller, the Word spread through the West Bluff. “She had some characters working for her,” youngest son Paul remembers.

Indeed, there usually was an exchange student, or two, and/or some relatives/friends staying at her home at any given time.

The newspaper moved from the Kenny household to the Carriage House on High Street — smack dab in the center of the historically preserved. Patricia helped start the Home and Garden tours that continue to this day and have spread all over the area. She became a realtor and found buyers for historic homes. “Real estate helped her to be ‘in the know’,” Maeve said, “to keep her neighborhood together.”

Patricia and her husband protested the Vietnam War on BU’s campus. And she helped develop the Carver Center on the South End. It wasn’t just Bradley she battled either. The Catholic Diocese, neighborhood associations and government leaders in the city caught her sights.

A New Yorker — an Irishwoman born into English aristocracy — Patricia Kenny had an air about her. She did not know her place. Pat’s annual Oscars parties were fabulous. She ruffled feathers.

“The closest thing to a John Waters film,” remembers oldest son, Michael. “She was ahead of her time. She was in the Journal Star for her Fondue Parties.”

The West Bluff Word morphed into the Senior News and Senior Times, and was sold in Springfield. It was eventually sold again, became The Community Word and then transacted into the CW’s current incarnation.

Activated

But Patricia Kenny was not done. She was appointed to boards and earned high positions, but “she would give up her commission for somebody else,” Deirdre said. “ ‘They need it more than me,’ she’d say.”

She was embroiled in local politics for the Democratic Party — she took a particular interest in the career of state representative Jehan Gordon-Booth — and continued “putting people in their place,” Deirdre Manna said. “My mom was one of a few who were so active in all these causes. She was an example of always doing the right thing. She was tenacious — very resilient.”

“The most determined woman I’ve ever known,” Michael said.

Pat Kenny spoke her mind, to hell with the consequences. She owned them — for better or for worse.

“She was a little nosy, a lot of active energy,” said Paul, who went to Spalding with U.S. representative Darin LaHood. “Darin would come over and she’d have 15 questions for (former Speaker of the House) Bob Michel.

“I am a loud-mouthed liberal out here in (Scottsdale) Arizona because of my parents.”

The Community Word continues to follow in the footsteps of its founding mother as it challenges local leaders and fills in the gaps left by this area’s ever-depleted mainstream media.

“She was very proud of that paper,” Grainne said. “Some days I like to think I have her fire.”

— Brian Ludwig is Managing Editor of The Community Word