Kathleen "Katie" Kennicott

Kathleen "Katie" Kennicott passed away on October 13, 2023, at the age of 86 from complications related to heart failure.
Katie is survived by her husband, Harrison "Red" Kennicott, her children Laura Kennicott, William (Debra), Stephen (Penny), David (Sara) and Sarah Weidemann (Joseph) also 14 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and one great-great grandson, along with her three cherished sisters, Maureen McRae, Ellen McKay and Molly Lambert.
Katie met Red when both were students at Michigan State University; they married the summer after Red graduated in 1959. While Red went straight into the family business, for five years Katie pursued the career she had prepared for, teaching math to eighth-graders.
Many in the floral industry knew Katie Kennicott best as the sunny, astute and engaging wife (64 years) of Harrison "Red" Kennicott, CEO of the Chicago-based wholesale distributor, Kennicott Brothers Company. Katie also played a direct role in the company's success. Over more than 60 years of active involvement in the floral industry, she showed a special talent for making strong connections with customers, suppliers, and others-connections that have helped to change the face of the industry.
Eventually, however-and perhaps inevitably, given her abilities-she was drawn into service with Kennicott Brothers as a customer-relations representative. This was at a time when, as Katie herself related in an interview, "There were no women in the wholesale flowers business at all. Zero."
She quickly established rapport with Kennicott's retail florist customers, who were mostly women, visiting their locations and immediately becoming a comrade. She always followed up each visit with a personal note. She visited prospects as well as customers. Many, even if they did not become customers, became lifelong friends.
In part because of Katie's role and presence, around this time the Wholesale Florists & Florist Suppliers Association (WF&FSA) organized a panel at its annual convention featuring women leaders. The panel marked a turning point and a new era for women in the wholesale florist business.
Over a period of at least 40 years, Katie came along with Red to nearly every WF&FSA and SAF annual convention, strengthening the company's connection to suppliers as well as to customers and always giving back to the industry. Together they helped establish and became founding members of AFE's Legacy Circle, an honorary group of industry members who made provisions for a planned gift to AFE to support the work of the Endowment.
When cut-flower production began to shift to South America, she traveled with her husband to meet with growers and shippers, helping to establish relationships in a new and unfamiliar part of the world.
This was in an era when Colombia was wracked with civil strife. Katie and Red were visiting the Medellin area around the time that drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot and killed by the Colombian national police. "Peasants from the fields, where they were growing coca, were thrown off their lands," Katie later recalled. "And the flower growers down there took all those people in, housed them, put them to work and educated the kids. We were down there, and we said, we can help."
With willing help from employees, friends, customers, and industry partners, Katie organized clothing drives that delivered much-needed help to the dislocated flower-farm employees. The clothing drives, however, were among many philanthropic efforts that Katie and Red have supported over the years, in and out of the industry, on a local and national level.
A son, Stephen, and granddaughter, Paige, operate Kennicott Kuts, a network of flower farms, specializing in peonies, that began in Illinois in 1836 and today stretches from Chile to Alaska.
Katie made friends every day wherever she went, including her alumni at Michigan State University, Pi Beta Phi, neighbors in Lake Point Tower and many more groups and causes. She was particularly close to her colleagues who attended Assumption Church, where she led the volunteer efforts which made it exceptional, including establishment of a memorial to her granddaughter, Bridget Rose, who died early in her life.
Katie's was a life that touched many other lives. Those who knew her will remember her saying, "That was fun." So, it was. Katie truly had a capacity for joy and was eternally optimistic.
Private family services were held, and there will be a celebration of her life on Saturday, November 11, 2023 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Remarks at 1:30 p.m.) at the Symphony Center in the Grainger Ballroom located at 220 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60604. Parking is available in the Grant Park South Lot, 325 South Michigan Avenue. Parking validation will be available in the Symphony Center Lobby.
A Memorial Tribute Fund has been established to forever honor Katie and her legacy at American Floral Endowment. Contributions to the Katie Kennicott Memorial Tribute can be made by sending a check to:
American Floral Endowment
c/o Katie Kennicott Memorial Tribute
610 Madison Street, Suite 101, PMB 803
Alexandria, VA 22314
For further information please call 312-421-0936.