The Gift of Laughter and the Gift of Joy
By Barbara W. Russell
Pat Kennedy of Springfield likes to have fun, and she likes to make people laugh. This 63 year old grandmother of six has been practicing her trade for most of her life; in fact, she began performing when she was in elementary school.
Her inspiration was watching Elvis perform on the Ed Sullivan Show, and she wanted to do the same. The school playground was her stage, and a tiny, plastic guitar shaped pencil sharpener was her instrument, and she wiggled and shook while singing “Hound Dog.” She was a great crowd pleaser, and her schoolmates handed over their lunch money to watch her perform. Unfortunately, her performances were short-lived. They were put to a stop when a neighbor drove by the school and thought the little Elvis was having a seizure, and when the principal found out the little Elvis was collecting lunch money, that ended her playground performances – but it was really just the beginning.
Making others laugh has been a most important part of her life, and she’s performed at banquets, wedding rehearsals, birthday parties, showers, nursing homes, retirement centers and you name it, and she’s taken her puppet ministry on a mission trip to Mexico. She even uses her talents in church. How’s that? Sometimes she gives a children’s sermon and uses her puppets and props. “First I get their attention by drawing them in,” she says, “then I teach a lesson.”
Over the years, in her funny acts she’s imitated many famous people including: Dolly Parton, Minnie Pearl, Aretha Franklin, Ronald Regan, Carol Burnett, and Savannah’s own Paula Dean, but her favorite is always Elvis. In fact, when she met me at the door for our interview, she was all decked out in her latest Elvis costume – white bellbottoms, white top, and a white cape, all adorned with sequins. She was wearing a black Elvis wig and giant sunglasses with eyepieces shaped as hearts. Of course I laughed, and she responded in character with “Thank you. Thank you very much,” in her best Elvis voice.
“When I put on my Elvis suit, my leg starts shaking,” she says. “My favorite Elvis song is ‘All Shook Up.’ Why? – Because I can do my pelvic roll the best!” She breaks into laughter, as if visualizing herself being funny. “And nowadays it don’t take as much energy. A long time ago I did ‘Hound Dog,’ but things don’t shake like they used to!”
Creating different characters and costumes is an ongoing process for Kennedy, and some of her favorites are: Red Neck Mama, The Church Lady, Rainbow the Clown, Florence Gump, and a 50’s Biker. She’s also been Miss Piggy, Raggedy Ann, Mickey Mouse, Big Bird, Barney and more. She must be the Acme Costume Store’s best customer, but most of her costumes are her own.
“How many closets do you have for your costumes and wigs and hats?” I ask.
“Oh, two….three….,” she looks around her house, “they’re everywhere!” she says, “and I’ve got trunks of stuff. I don’t get jewelry and stuff (as gifts), I get toys! For our 20th wedding anniversary my husband, Ken, asked me what I wanted, and I told him – an Elvis suit. And that’s what I got.
“You’ll never get a ticket if you’re wearing a costume!” she says. She laughs and tells me about two times when she was stopped by an officer as she was driving to an event – she was wearing a costume of course.
“I got stopped one time in my Elvis suit, and the State Patrol was not going to give me a ticket, then all I said was ‘Thank you. Thank you very much,’ and he thought I was being a smart aleck, and he was going to write me a warning.
“Then I got stopped one time as Dolly Parton. I was driving my son’s car and his seat was lying way back, and I couldn’t get it up, so I was driving leaning way back with these “Dolly mounds” sticking up, and I was trying to see over the steering wheel. The guy said, ‘Lady, I don’t know – you are a lady aren’t you? I don’t know where you’re going or what you’re doing, but just slow down.”
I’m sure the officers were shaking their heads and chuckling as they walked back to their cars.
“There’s not a whole lot of anything that I wouldn’t do to make somebody laugh,” she says. “One time when I was at a 4H camp I jumped up on a piano, then I realized I was a hundred and something pounds up on the piano! That’s a memory that just really stuck out in my mind.
“Everybody thinks I’m all about fun and laughter, but I’ve got a serious side too – it’s a spiritual side, and there’s been some things that I’ve done that have been difficult.”
She tells about a time when she was part of the entertainment at a widow’s banquet. “It would have been easy not to be funny, but if you don’t have laughter in your life, a little joy…. and that’s what they needed. They didn’t need to be preached to, or anything, they needed joy. One of the ladies had not gone to anything since her husband had passed away, and that night she laughed – she had some joy in her life.”
Part of Kennedy’s message is, “Why be negative – everything is going to be alright. Of course, faith is brought in there,” she says, “- believing in God and trusting in Him that everything is going to be alright.”
She speaks from experience, and says that her faith and her humor are what got her through some difficult times.
Nineteen years ago she learned that she had colon cancer, but her faith enabled her to remain positive, and she found many occasions for laughter. Once when she was in a doctor’s office waiting for a procedure, a black lady came in dressed-up in a pretty white dress. She wore a large white hat with a huge white feather on it, and when she removed her clothes and put on a hospital gown, she kept the large white hat with the huge white feather on her head. “That cracked me up!” Kennedy said, “and when Kennedy saw the doctor for her examination, she said, “I didn’t know we were supposed to be dressed for the occasion!”
Kennedy felt sure she would have to take chemotherapy, and that as a result she would lose her hair, but she considered her situation in a positive way. “I had already picked out my wigs,” she said, “and I knew what characters I would be with them. But then my doctor told me I wouldn’t need chemotherapy!” – I guess that’s the power of positive thinking.
The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life is very special to Kennedy, and she walks in it every year. “The first year I walked in the survivor’s lap, I decided to wear my Elvis suit. My granddaughter said, ‘Grand Ma, everybody will laugh.’ ‘I know,’ I said.”
Why has she survived cancer when so many young people and children have not? That’s a question her heart ponders. She doesn’t know the answer, but she does know that she has a ministry to bring a bit of joy to those who are terminally ill. Many times she has dressed up as a clown or another character and visited children in the hospital.
“Once there was a little girl in a room who had Aids, and nobody wanted to go into her room. When asked if I would, I said, ‘Sure.’ I went in and she was sitting on her bed writing a letter to Santa Claus asking him for a cure.” Kennedy doesn’t finish the story. There’s a catch in her voice. I know that was one of those times when what she did was difficult for her, but I’m also sure that there was laughter in that child’s room that day.
One time she did a clown workshop for children who were terminally ill with cancer at Camp Sunshine in north Georgia. “My daughter, Stacy, went with me and my mom, and we dressed up as clowns. When we got there we saw a screened-in room that had artificial limbs and wigs and stuff, so our emotions were already running….then they brought the children over in golf carts because some of them can’t walk.”
They got their emotions in check and painted every child’s face as a clown. “There was a little eight year old boy who had some kind of a tumor on his side and it caused him to have these breathing spells and he would sweat. It took over 45 minutes to get the paint on him, because every time I’d get so far he’d have an episode and the paint would sweat off his face. But he had the most patience, and he was determined to be a clown.
“Then we performed at the end of it; we and the kids did a little clown act, and a skit, and some of the parents came to watch.”
That’s another memory she says she won’t forget – she loves the children. In fact, one of her dreams is to spend a week at the St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee visiting with the children, in costume of course. It’s an unselfish dream. “I want to bring joy to a cloudy day,” she says.
That’s her serious dream, but she quickly shifts to her funny mode when she thinks about getting old. “My dream is to be sitting in a nursing home singing “A Hunk a Hunk of Burning Love!” she says, “and I want to be buried in my clown suit!”
After spending her life bringing laughter and joy to others, Kennedy is now entertaining in a new role. She’s a costumed storyteller for ‘Ebenezer Alive,’ an educational program at the Ebenezer Retreat Center. She portrays Mary Musgrove who was an important interpreter and cultural liaison between the Creek Indians and the English Colonists during the 1700’s.
“I think the only thing I regret in my life is not becoming a teacher. So now I’ve come at a time in my life, portraying Mary Musgrove, where I can use my being a character, which I love to do, and use it in a form of teaching, which has been really a blessing. I tell about Mary Musgrove – she had perseverance – that’s what I like about her, and I get to teach the way I want to.”
Pat Kennedy teaches. She brings joy. She makes people laugh, -and she recognizes that God has given her these gifts. “I always say a little prayer before I do anything,” she says, “and once they start laughing….” Well, then she knows she’s putting her gifts of laughter and joy to good use.
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