OPINION|
I drove out to Buc-ee's, exit 84 off of Interstate 44, and for the first time noticed the “George Kennedy Memorial Bridge” sign.
Apparently, that's the name MoDOT has given the bridge over I-44 at Buc-ee's.
Who is George Kennedy?
Is it the person who won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke”?
No, it's not.
Since it's a “memorial” bridge, the George Kennedy we're talking about must be dead. Right?
Yes. He died in 1978 at age 86 — which means he was born in 1892.
Bridge was named before Buc-ee's
The naming of the George Kennedy Memorial Bridge happened years before there was a Buc-ee's and years before part of Mulroy Road was renamed Beaver Road in January 2023.
I thought perhaps George Kennedy was a former Missouri Department of Transportation employee. Is that how you get your name on a state bridge?
No, it's not.
Here's how it works. MoDOT has a Memorial Highway and Bridge Program where members of the public can nominate someone who is deceased to have their name placed on a state highway or bridge.
It costs $4,000 for two 6-foot by 3-foot signs, which also covers installation and maintenance. If approved, one must re-apply for the naming rights after 20 years.
The $4,000 fee is waived if the deceased person died while serving in our armed forces, or was missing in action, or was an emergency worker who died while doing their job, or was a state employee on the job when they died, or is a Missouri medal of honor winner.
The George Kennedy we're talking about — the person the bridge is named for — was a farmer. His brief obituary says little more than:
“”Mr. Kennedy was dead on arrival at 1:51 p.m. Sunday at Cox Medical Center after apparently having a heart attack in his home.
“He was a retired farmer. Survivors include his wife, Margaret Elizabeth, and six nephews.”
His wife died in 1990 at age 87. They apparently did not have children.
No bio required in making submission
The application was submitted to MoDOT in 2018. The person who submitted it was Fred Wolter. He gathered 106 signatures on a MoDOT form that says “100 Signatures for Memorial Designation.”
The application had to have a sponsor in the Missouri House. This application was sponsored by Lyndall Fraker, a state representative at the time. It was reviewed by MoDOT and by the Missouri General Assembly's Joint Committee on Transportation Oversight.
What surprised me is that these applications do not require even a short biography of the deceased person. It is optional. The applicant has up to 800 characters to write the bio.
I could not find a bio for George Kennedy. I contacted MoDOT and asked if there was one but did not hear back, days later, by deadline for publication of this story.
I spoke to a relative of George Kennedy in Texas
Fred Wolter, who died in 2019 at age 91, was George Kennedy's neighbor. Wolter filled out the application to honor Kennedy with the naming of a bridge.
What I did find in the 2018 application paperwork was the name of a George Kennedy relative.
I spoke to Samuel H. Kennedy, of Lubbock, Texas. He was a teenager when George Kennedy died. George Kennedy was his great uncle and he was a dairy farmer.
“My uncle and my great uncle gave quite a bit of money to the Shriners because the Shriners had helped his (George Kennedy's) older brother, Frank,” Samuel Kennedy says. “He developed arthritis at an early age. Fred wanted to honor my great uncle because of the assistance he had given to the Shriners over the years.
“As far as I can tell my great uncle was a private person. He just raised dairy cows.”
This is Pokin Around column No. 194.
