Early Life
Kilkenny’s father and uncle immigrated to Morrow County, Oregon, from County Leitrim in Ireland in the 1890s. They worked for the railroads until they had saved enough money to buy land.
John Kilkenny was born in Heppner, Oregon on October 26, 1901. He was raised on a sheep farm and attended the one-room Alpine School before being sent to Portland, Oregon, where he attended the private boys' boarding school Columbia Preparatory.
After graduation, Judge Kilkenny went on to the University of Notre Dame Law School in South Bend, Indiana. He graduated in 1925 with cum laude honors earning an LL.B.. At Notre Dame, Kilkenny tried out for the football team, then coached by Knute Rockne, but a knee injury kept him from playing. He helped manage one of the teams and was assigned by Rockne the task of acquiring four horses for the Four Horsemen photograph in 1924 due to his experience growing up on a ranch.
Read more about this topic: John Kilkenny
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)