There is a middle ground without Marie.
why dont the local newspapers print this story?
Posted on June 19, 2004 at 07:18:08 AM by Jaime
The year was 1925, and wealthy white men ruled South Texas.
And, as this parallel story claims, on an incomprehensibly large and remote South Texas cattle spread, the rambunctious, hard-drinking scion of a pioneer Anglo ranch family sired a daughter by a teenage Hispanic maid.
The long-secret father, according to this account, was the grandson of ranch founder Mifflin Kenedy and heir to a family fortune that has since grown to an estimated $500 million to $1 billion.
And it was not until decades passed that the would-be heir stepped forward. It came with a startling assertion of clandestine parentage made in a lawsuit filed in 2001 in tiny Sarita (population 414), 40 miles south of Corpus Christi.
"Ann M. Fernandez is the biological daughter and sole living heir of John G. Kenedy Jr.," reads the suit, since transferred from the Kenedy County seat to Austin.
The symmetry of the Thurmond and Kenedy stories is easily seen--illicit sexual affairs across the cultural taboos of class and color, followed by nearly eight decades of uneasy silence.
But they are stories with divergent endings.
"I think the differences are startling--the denial of parentage here and the resistance to allowing us to prove our genealogy," says Austin lawyer Mark Schwartz, who represents the Fernandez family.
John G. Kenedy Jr. was believed to be sterile, and when he died in Mexico in 1948 in hazy circumstances, he left everything to his childless wife, Elena.
There was no mention in his will of the child born Anita Matilde, who surfaced five decades later as Ann Fernandez with the claim of being his daughter. There are clues, however, that even back then the Kenedys may have known of Fernandez's inconvenient existence.
"Elena's will is real interesting. She wrote that if there were illegitimate children, they don't receive a penny, which is not a typical thing you find in wills," says Dr. Ray Fernandez, the Nueces County medical examiner and Fernandez's youngest son.
When Elena Kenedy died in 1984 without children, the acknowledged Kenedy bloodline had already expired. The 400,000-acre La Parra Ranch, a spread larger than Rhode Island, fell into the hands of lawyers and trust administrators. Since then, the enormous Kenedy wealth, much of it derived from oil and gas royalties, has been controlled by two large nonprofits that annually donate $15 million or so, primarily to Catholic churches and charities.
The appearance decades later of Kenedy heirs threatens to turn the established order in this insular corner of the state upside down. And very soon the Fernandez family members may learn, for better or worse, if they are an offshoot of the famous Kenedy bloodline.
Preliminary genetic testing on Kenedy relatives, alive and long dead, already has convinced a probate judge in Austin to act. Late last month, he ordered the exhumation of John G. Kenedy Jr.'s body for further DNA testing.
"The court does find that there is a paternity allegation supported by evidence submitted by both sides which constitutes a necessity or compelling reason for exhumation," wrote Judge Guy Herman on January 29, ordering that the exhumation occur by the last day of February.
In his order, the judge said the exhumation is needed to determine if Ann Fernandez, now 78 and mentally incompetent, can establish the necessary legal standing as a Kenedy descendant to make a claim against the estates.
But lawyers for the two huge nonprofits--the John G. Kenedy Jr. Charitable Trust and the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation--quickly filed appeals to try to block the exhumation.
"In plain English, this is an attempt to overturn over 50 year
read the full story@ http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-02-19/feature.html
Posted on June 19, 2004 at 08:41:05 AM by Jaime
I question the integrity of a newspaper that is supposed to be objective but cannot print stories that are harmful to their friends! Like Serpent in the Garden by James Pinkerton and the slant they take with the reporting on the fernandez kenedy case. Serpent in the garden is about a pediphile child molester at Parkdale Babtist Church... I forgot to tell you who the friend was in the Serpent in the Garden. His name is R. R. oops! I guess i just pissed off a billionaire. Sue me. He and most of his employs attended the church. They intimidated the victims and families by such acts like throwing rocks through the windows with notes like have you no heart let he who have not sinned cast the first stone. Ask Chris ??? If he sold out his clients. Manuel M. was blackballed. Eddin??? and Michael M. made them an offer they could not refuse. Mr. R. has since moved (away) and deserted the city he loved. The Dallas observer did not show up here in Corpus Christi the day it had the latest fernandez story in it. ??? I just pissed off a billionaire. Sorry Mr. R., if the truth is coming out after you thought it was all deleted. You cannot buy out God. How small is the eye (in the needle)?
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