Charlotte G. Kennedy

Charlotte Gertrude Kennedy, 98, of Denver, passed away Thursday morning, July 4, 2013, at the Collier Hospice Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

A dear wife, devoted mother, cherished sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, and beloved friend, Charlotte not only touched everyone she met with her room-brightening smile; unforgettable laugh; self-deprecating sense of humor; persistently positive disposition; and calming, nurturing spirit but was a shining example of the traditions and values, passed down to her, that have become the fabric of the family she so deeply loved: a devotion to family, a strong work ethic, and a selfless enthusiasm for helping others.

Charlotte was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1915. The values she embodied and inspired in her family throughout her extraordinary life were passed along to her by her father Albert Hoelsken, a family man, singer, connoisseur of good beer -- which he brewed himself regularly -- and expert cabinet maker, who immigrated to America from Essen, Germany, in 1907 for a better life; and her first-generation German-American mother, Helen (Rauwald) Hoelsken, a loving and caring woman who once won a $10 prize from the local paper for the most beautiful yard in the Barnum neighborhood of Denver, but who was also strict and industrious, admonishing her children to "not run wild" and spoke of cleaning out stove ashes the morning of her wedding.

In 1920, after Helen contracted tuberculosis, the family left Milwaukee for the cleaner air Colorado provided. Albert and Helen moved Charlotte, age 5, and her four siblings at the time -- Marie, 12; Dorothy, 10; Florence, 8; and Francis, 3 -- to the then-relative country living (tending to a few cows and chickens) of Denver. It would become the beginning of a Hoelsken-Colorado connection that today includes over a hundred family members, who still, in keeping with tradition, gather in a Denver-area park on a late-July Sunday afternoon for the annual Hoelsken Family Picnic.

Charlotte was the first in her family to graduate high school, Denver's St. Joseph's in 1933. She attributed it to the fact that there were no jobs available to her at the time. Her sisters Dorothy, Marie and Florence all left school early to take jobs to help out the family after the passing of their mother.

John Patton Kennedy, one of the boys who lived behind the old Hoelsken homestead at 626 Perry Street, would become the one and only love of Charlotte's life. On October 30, 1941, the two married, would raise their four beloved children -- Colleen, Jean, Carol, and Dennis -- and carry on not just a 40-year marriage that lasted until John's passing in 1981, but a love that endured in Charlotte's heart for the remainder of her life.

Much like that of her mother and father's, Charlotte's life was neither easy nor glamorous. She lived through the Great Depression and World War II -- in which her husband served -- raising their four children on a limited income and building their first home from the ground up, with the help of family.

The final 10 years of Charlotte's life were hard. She suffered from dementia, a heart attack, had a pacemaker, endured two back surgeries, and lost much of her eyesight and hearing -- but you wouldn't know it from her uplifting, positive demeanor. She often joked that, "You had better have a lot of time to wait for me to tell a story."

Charlotte had a zest and zeal for life. She loved reading, water-color painting, and entertaining (at least once a month, when she was able, she'd have aunts, uncles, and cousins over for Sunday dinner), and, nearing 70 years of age, even went parasailing behind a speedboat above the waters of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Above all else, Charlotte really loved her family. As her son, Dennis, recalls her reminiscing, gazing at a plant in her small room at The Gardens of St. Elizabeth in the latter days of her life, "I really loved my mother. She was such a good person. We used plants like this to fill holes in the decorations on the altar. Mother loved to decorate a church altar, even when she was really sick."

On another day, she reminisced about her husband, John. "He was such a good man. I really loved him. He worked so hard to keep the family together. Family was the most important thing to him. He was such a good man and he died so young."

Charlotte is preceded in death by her loving husband of four decades, John Patton Kennedy; sisters Marie, Florence, and Dorothy; and brothers Robert and Francis.

She is survived by her four children, Margaret Colleen Carroll, Charlotte Jean Valdez, Carol Ann Holeman, and Dennis John Kennedy; brother Albert (Bud) Hoelsken; sister Margaret (Margie) McIlvain; 16 grandchildren: Michael Carroll, John Carroll, Mary Eileen Vialpando, Correen Cool, Kevin Carroll, Eric Carroll, Maureen Pfannensteil Franklin, Randy Pfannenstiel, Jennifer Pfannenstiel Slaughter, Heidi Pfannenstiel VanDePol, Melissa Holeman Santoro, Kayce Holeman, Jodi Holeman Trujillo, Lisa Holeman, David Kennedy, and Erin Bateman; four step-grandchildren: Jennifer Becker, Amanda Becker, Jamie Valdez, and Thomas Valdez; and 24 great-grandchildren.

A Rosary service will be held 7 p.m. Thursday, July 11, at the Newcomer West Chapel, 901 S. Sheridan Blvd., in Lakewood, Colorado. Services are set for 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Notre Dame Catholic Church, 2190 S. Sheridan Blvd., Denver, followed by burial at 12:30 p.m. at Fort Logan National Cemetery, 4400 W. Kenyon Ave., Denver.

A reception will follow at a location to be announced.

The family requests that if any donations are made in Charlotte's honor, that they be made to The Gardens of St. Elizabeth Assisted Living, 2835 W. 32nd Ave., Denver, CO.



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