Please note: we are aware that there are quality issues with the pictures due to the scanner. We will try rescanning and reposting them at a later date. However, we felt it was more important at this time to include the story and pictures in the Legends section.

This story in from an Ebony magazine printed sometime in the mid to late 1950's. Some of the pages appear twice, as the magazine pages were large and we did not want to "shrink" them down to fit the scanner, so we copied the top portion, then the bottom.

Art Kennedy's son, Butch, died in 1992 at the age of 48. At the time of his passing, he owned and operated the Arthur Kennedy and Sons Sheet Metal Shop Inc. The company was founded by his father in the early 1950's and specialized in heating and air conditioning. Butch Kennedy broke more than 10 world records in outboard racing during his professional career. He stopped racing in 1989. According to his obituary, Butch was one of the first blacks to graduate from Ranken Technical Institute and he served in the Army 1968 until 1974. Surviving him was his wife, a daughter and two sons, all of St. Louis.

We heard recently from Steve Powell, who's father, Charlie Powell, raced outboards with Art Kennedy: I remember as a young boy, Art Kennedy would show up at a race with just a runnabout on his roof, and my dad would remove his 5 port D-merc from his hydro, and put it on Art's runnabout, and switch back and forth, era approximately 1963.....sincerely, Steve Powell

Art Kennedy won 2 class championships at the NOA Nationals held at Cairo, IL.