J.R. Kennedy - Cedar Cemetery - Montrose, CO
N 38° 29.039 W 107° 51.054
13S E 251329 N 4263368
A broken column headstone, itself broken, marks the final resting place of Jonathan Ralston Kennedy, in Cedar Cemetery, Montrose, CO.
Waymark Code: WMZDX1
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 10/26/2018
Views: 1
Mr. Kennedy is somewhat famous, although most folks wouldn't know it. He had three deaf children, and with some money he borrowed from his family, he managed to persuade a deaf neighbor,
Philip Emery, to establish a school for the deaf in the 1860s. Today, that school is the
Kansas School for the Deaf. Mr. Kennedy was a steward there, and in 1874, he founded the Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes, today's
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, with his three children making up nearly half of the first class in Colorado Springs, where the Kennedy family had relocated.
One of Kennedy's children, Emma, married a man named Frank Chaney, who himself was deaf -- he was a barber, affectionately called "Dummy" by the locals -- and one of their children had exceptional abilities in communicating with them through pantomime. When Mrs. Chaney fell ill, it fell to this son to help her out, not only keeping her entertained, but also keeping her up on current events by acting things out.
The son was Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces, one of the greatest actors of the silent film era, a remarkable talent with his face, eyes, hands, and other body language. While some of Chaney's best work, like "The Phantom of the Opera", "The Unholy Three", and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", have survived, much of his work is lost. It was this scene in "The Miracle Man" that got him noticed. It's all acting, thanks to his work with his family.