Wanita Kennedy

"We are all given the ingredients of happiness, but the mixing is left to us.”
Wanita Mae Kennedy was born on January 28th, 1928, to the Blue family in Capron, Oklahoma. She and her twin sister Wanda were the second and third children of what would become a family of eight. When Wanita was in high school, the family moved to Washington State. She graduated from Fort Vancouver High school in 1945 and attended Clark College. While there, she reconnected with a high school classmate, Arthur Kennedy. They married on July 27th, 1947, and began their lives together, entering the dairy business with a small herd of Jerseys. Soon after, they would start their family: a daughter, Linda was born in 1948 followed by William, Joseph, and Kathy. As their family grew, so did their herd of dairy cows and in 1957 they moved to Ridgefield and started Arwana Farms – a combination of Art and Wanita’s names. It was a family effort, with Wanita doing all the bookkeeping for the farm well into her 80s. She also served as President of the Clark County Dairy Women, and the Kennedys were named Clark County Dairy Family of the Year in 1974.

Wanita loved to swim, sew, quilt, cook, garden, travel and watch the Blazers. She was preceded in death by her husband, Art; son Joe; and granddaughter Nikki. She is survived by her son Bill (JoAnn); daughters Linda (Scott) Grey and Kathy (Don) Jansen; brother Lewis Blue and sister Barbara Lewis; ten grandchildren; and ten great grandchildren