If ever there were a real-life Disney princess, it would be Nancy “Laa Laa” Kennedy. Born Anne Sibley on July 27, 1935, she left us in peace and comfort, surrounded by earthly memories and early morning light in her home in Nobleboro on Feb. 7, 2025.
Nancy’s life was a complete journey of music and hope and a fearless faith that forgiveness is the basis of all healing. A woman who spread joy to all living things, it’s no wonder she led glee club at Pingree School, where as a founding faculty member, she also taught music history and appreciation and “turned on” many students to the classics through trips to Boston Symphony Hall. She later sang in the Portland Choral Arts and organized unforgettable outdoor concerts by the Portland Symphony Orchestra when she moved full time to Maine. But her true talent peaked and shone as organist at the Camp Kieve chapel for six decades where young boys finding their voices competed for “sweetest” and “loudest,” and where she wrote and directed rowdy and raucous musicals customizing whatever was the Broadway hit of the year. Laa Laa’s little missionary pump organ sported two bumper stickers that perfectly capture her spirit: “The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope” and “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace”.
Nancy met Richard “Dick” Kennedy (1931-2016) while performing in an a cappella group at Vassar. When he stuck a long stem rose down the back of her dress, a love was struck that lasted as long as they did, navigating thorn and bloom, as we all should. They married in 1957 and are survived by their two children Nanne Kennedy, of Washington, and Henry Kennedy, of Nobleboro; four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren; hundreds of students and thousands of campers and friends, all of whom felt they had a personal relationship, all of whom she considered family, because that’s the sort of lady she was. That union planted her firmly as the mother and grandmother of Camp Kieve.
A devoted member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Newcastle and St. Michael’s in Sanibel, where she “Zoomed in” for regular services, Bible study, and fellowship, she was loved by all who knew her, in church and community, and felt a huge kinship with the storytellers and lovers of life at the annual Great Mother Conference.
With a silly joke to bring light to every darkness, Nancy is remembered for “love, laughter, music, and deep interest in the theological plight.” Her best friends, some of them in their 80s, sent her on her way by doing snow angels, and have requested for you to take a moment to ponder on what needs hope today, and every day. If she were able to give us a parting thought, it would be a reminder that “Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love till you give it away.”
Her words: “I believe we come from a place of great love before we are born and we return to that place when we die. If you want to see love, you will see it everywhere. Love is creation, creativity, love is eternity, all souls, all beauty on this earth. You live in love’s embrace. Love is you.”
Plans are in the making for a celebration of life at the Kieve chapel by Damariscotta Lake this summer. Stay tuned. Her spirit is still very much with us, and we promise to have some fun.
