The Kenner began with an organization
meeting held in the home of Mr. & Mrs. W.H. Lester. The first
worship service was held in a laundromat at the corner of Airline Hwy and
Moisant Dr. on Easter Sunday, 1950, and was led by Rev. R.H. Jamieson.
A portable organ was borrowed from Tulane University.
The church was organized on
May 3, 1950 with 25 charter members. The T.L. James company bought
a piece of land for the church. Mr. George Williams donated $1000
to complete the deal. The first building was the Fellowship Hall.
The first service was held there on Thanksgiving Day in 1950. The
congregation sat on "carpenters horses". Ground was broken for the
sanctuary on October 21, 1956, under the leadership of Rev. Dan Felder.
The sanctuary was completed in April, 1957 at a cost of $74,000.
By 1957, the Sunday School had
grown to 500 members. But tragedy struck on March 3, 1959.
The sanctuary and part of the education building burned down. The
organ and most of the church records were also destroyed. By June
of that same year, the damage had been repaired and the new education building
was in use. In 1982, the Kenner Adult Day Health Care Center was
opened ... the only one of its kind in Jefferson Parish.
Source: "A Brief History of the
Kenner United Methodist Church" by Gertrude Burke |
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