Dale Kennedy

Dale Kennedy (Term of Office 1954 - 1956)

Dale Robert Kennedy was born June 24, 1914 in Dumont, Iowa to Martin Lewis Kennedy and Hattie May (Smith) Kennedy. He came from a large family with four brothers and five sisters. In 1915 Dale and his family moved to Pittsford, Iowa, and in the 1920 Federal census, six-year old Dale and his family were living at 4645 High Street in Denver which was very close to the newly-built National Western Stockyard where his interest in livestock may have started. His father Martin was employed as a teamster, and his older sisters were sales clerks in a bakery.

Dale married Virgie B Greenwood in Flagstaff, Arizona on December 20, 1935 at the age of 21. Virgie, who was born in Nogales, Arizona on March 8, 1917 to Bluford Preston Greenwood and Myrtle J. (Fenter) Greenwood, had a twin brother and two older sisters. Her father owned an architect engineering firm. Dale registered for the WWII draft while living in Arizona.

By 1945, the Kennedy’s had moved to Denver and had one son, Gale Robert, who attended Westminster District 50 schools, excelled in sports and received a baseball scholarship to the University of Arizona in 1963. He was later drafted by the Minnesota Twins, playing for their AAA Denver Bears in 1969.

Dale was elected the fifth Mayor of Federal Heights in 1954, serving a two-year term and earning $5/month. The Town’s water supply was an ongoing problem during Kennedy’s term. The Town drilled a second water well, purchased a 75,000-gallon water storage tank, and constructed a pump house. An excessive amount of silt was being pumped through the lines from the Town’s original well and both a filtering system and chemical treatment were considered. Many Town Board meetings included discussions about water bill collection, pipes for the new water system, water taps, booster pumps, collection of water bills, water bonds and water rationing.

One Federal Heights ordinance was signed by Mayor Kennedy during his two-year term, Ordinance No. 18 regulating “trailers, house trailers, and trailer courts.” The ordinance was repealed in 1960. Other items of discussion for Kennedy and his Town Board were: septic tanks and cess pools, dance hall licenses, road maintenance and travel, building codes, liquor licenses, annexation and heat for the Town Hall. It was during his term that the Town Board corrected street names and numbers and, as the Town Board of Health, prosecuted violators of the County and State rabies regulations. The Federal Heights Volunteer Fire Department was organized and the Town gave the department all of the City’s fire equipment and a check in the amount of $100 to defray immediate expenses. Correspondence was sent to all of the Town’s residents urging them to register their vehicles in Federal Heights “so that the Highway Users Tax Fund allocated would be more favorable.”

During the couple’s time in Federal Heights, Dale’s wife Virgie was very active in the Federal Heights Women’s Club, organizing fundraisers for the community including an Easter egg hunt in 1951, a spaghetti dinner in 1954, a mother’s march on polio in 1955 and many more.

In a 1960s edition of the Denver Post Parade Magazine, Dale was featured in an article about his rodeo career.

In the early 1970s, the Kennedys owned and operated a liquor store next to their residence at 9090 Federal Boulevard. When they left Federal Heights, they moved to Berthoud, Colorado where they pursued their interests in livestock and ranching. The couple celebrated 61 years of marriage before Virgie passed away on September 1, 1997. Dale passed away on November 28, 2008 in Berthoud at the age of 94.