Robert F. Kennon - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Kennon was born in rural Dubberly, south of Minden, the seat of government of Webster Parish. He was the fifth child of Floyd Kennon (1871–1966), who was born the year that Webster Parish was established, and the former Annie Laura Bopp. The Kennons operated an Independent Grocers Alliance store in Minden. After Floyd Kennon's retirement, the store was managed by two sons, Francis Edward Kennon, Sr., and Webb Kennon. Young Bob Kennon was an avid Boy Scout (See Scouting in Louisiana.) who attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He graduated in 1919 from Minden High School, then a comparatively new institution. Thereafter, he attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he procured numerous honors. At the end of his freshman year, he received an award for the best academic record in his class. He was captain of his company in Reserve Officers Training Corps and the vice president of the Interfraternity Council. He was on the debate team and wrote for the campus newspaper, The Daily Reveille. He earned his first letter playing center for the LSU Tigers football team. He helped to organize the university tennis team and was one of the first two people to letter in tennis at LSU, from which he graduated in June 1923.

Kennon graduated from the Louisiana State University Law Center in May 1925. A month later at the age of twenty-two, he passed the bar exam.

Kennon wed the former Eugenia Sentell (December 27, 1908–May 24, 2002), a graduate of Louisiana Tech University (then Louisiana Polytechnic Institute) in Ruston, who taught home economics. Descended from a prominent family in Bossier Parish, Mrs. Kennon was a sister of the Minden physician Charles Sherburne Sentell (1904–1972). She was a wonderful hostess and was able to cultivate several friendships that would later play key roles in her husband's campaigns. The Kennons had three sons, Robert, Jr. (born 1938), a lawyer, and Charles Sentell "Charlie" Kennon (born 1940), a physician, both in Baton Rouge, and Kenneth Wood "Kenwood" Kennon (born 1943), also a lawyer, who resides in St. Francisville in West Feliciana Parish. Kenneth Kennon is the father of Alexandra Kennon.