Mary Ann Kinder

(Mary) Ann Kinder (Mrs. James L. Kinder) passed away at Holiday Resort in Emporia, Kansas on Sunday Sept 19, 2021. She was 87. She was the daughter of Marion E. and Ila M. (Falkingham) Kennedy. She was born in 1933 in Emporia where she lived all of her life.  She received a Bachelor of Music Education from Kansas State Teachers College (Emporia State University).

She loved music, and taught music at Saffordville Grade School and later at Neosho Rapids High School. She stopped teaching in public schools when she started her family but continued to give private voice and piano lessons. She met the love of her life and future husband James “Jim” L. Kinder whom she married in 1955, while working at Reeble’s north grocery store during high school and college. She was a lifelong member of the First United Methodist Church in Emporia where she frequently sang solos and was a member of the choir in her younger years. In later years, she played piano for the Saturday night service.  After Jim’s retirement from Reeble’s, Ann and Jim were frequent lay speakers at smaller churches in the area providing a preaching and music duo when needed.She is survived by her son Lawrence Lee Kinder and his wife Kathy Kinder of Overland Park KS, her daughter Deborah Diane Kinder and her husband Bob Shank of Emporia KS, 5 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her brothers Carl and Kenneth  Kennedy, and sister Dorothy Enright.

Graveside services will be held on Wednesday September 22, 2021 at 2:00 pm at the Patio Garden of Memorial Lawn Cemetery. The service will be conducted by Pastor Karla Sheffy, First United Methodist Church, Emporia.  Interment will be in Maplewood Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers her family requests donations to the First United Methodist Church of Emporia Kansas, sent in care of Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home, PO Box #175, Emporia, Kansas 66801.

Condolences may be sent to the family through the funeral home website; www.robertsblue.com