He couldn’t keep from singing
By John S. Rausch

Through music Brother Charlie doubled the prayer life of Glenmarians, parishioners

Brother Charles Kennedy: A master musician.

When Glenmarians celebrated Eucharist, Brother Charles Kennedy chanted the responsorial psalm. Trained in Gregorian chant at Maryknoll Seminary in the early 1950s and schooled in contemporary liturgical music at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in the late 1960s, he enhanced a congregation’s sense of worship as organist or cantor. With his death on Jan. 11, Brother Charlie undoubtedly joined the tenors in the angels’ choir praising God.

Brother Charlie served for years as associate director at Glenmary’s regional house in Fairfield, Conn., and at the society’s Headquarters in Cincinnati. His duties of scheduling, buying and maintaining never robbed him of music opportunities. When at Headquarters he sang with the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus and when stationed for the past 20 years in the southern Georgia missions, he performed with the Savannah Symphony Chorus.

Following Vatican II, Brother Charlie became Glenmary’s music consultant. In that role, he traveled throughout the missions helping mission communities become more familiar with the new trends in liturgical music.

Parishioners reveled in his beautifully flexible tenor voice. Glenmary Father Brian LaBurt remembers once when Brother Charlie started singing the “Celtic Farewell” (tune of “Oh, Danny Boy”) too high at a funeral Mass in Claxton, Ga. Knowing the congregation couldn’t hit those high notes, Brother Charlie later told Father Brian that he “sweated bullets” during that song! Yet, Father Brian, also an accomplished musician, marveled that Brother Charlie “hit the high G flawlessly and his voice never went down with age.”

Beyond his talent, parishioners and Glenmarians consistently referred to Brother Charlie as kind, gentle and positive. Arlette Ticklighter, a parishioner in Claxton, remembered how Brother Charlie frequented the local wellness center and “was so friendly he overcame the suspicions about Catholics.”

Unquestionably, Brother Charlie liked to talk. Once while traveling from southern Georgia to Cincinnati, he made the 10-hour trip with a Glenmarian who was hearing-impaired. Brother Charlie arrived in Cincinnati hoarse and was unable to cantor the first night of Glenmary’s Congress because he had strained his voice shouting at his fellow Glenmarian to keep the conversation going!

Curious and studious, Brother Charlie had broad interests. One of his avocations was magic. He wore a top hat and suit coat when he entertained children and adults with his sleight of hand at community events and parish gatherings.

Birding also caught his interest. With binoculars at the ready, he could thrill to finding a pileated woodpecker or ruby-throated hummingbird while on a bird-watching tour or when he house-sat for someone in the country. Religiously he tended his own bird-feeders in the yard.

Brother Charlie was no show-off. He graciously played his part in an ensemble or as soloist. If St. Augustine was accurate that “to sing means to pray twice,” then Brother Charlie through his music doubled the prayer life of parishioners and fellow Glenmarians.

Sleight of Hand: In addition to his music, Brother Charlie was also an accomplished magician, here entertaining volunteers at the Glenmary Farm.