Beatrice Julia Schneider was born on 6 October, 1922 in Maspeth, Queens. She was the 4th daughter and 7th child of Otto Joseph Schneider and Anna Josephine Herold.
Immediately after her birth, the Schneiders moved to a home on Scudder Avenue in the tiny harborside village of Northport, LI. There Beatrice--or Beatie as her family called her--attended St. Philip Neri RC School, then moved on to Northport High School.
Bea obtained a position at Republic Aviation, a large defense contractor in Farmingdale, LI. Her future husband, William Allen Kennedy, also worked there. One of her earliest memories of Bill was of his daily sprint for the bus to Republic with his poncho fluttering in the breeze behind him. Outside of the workplace, Bill and Bea would run into each other at the local bowling alley, where Bill acted as the scorekeeper for Bea's team.
Bea had been deeply affected my her father's death in 1942, and found something reassuring in the company of Bill, who was 10 years her senior. After some initial reservations on the part of Bea's family, (perhaps due to the difference in their ages) they were married on November 8th, 1952, just after Bill came home from service in the Korean War.
The newlyweds moved into a small apartment just a few doors down from the Schneider house. In 1956, they moved to a house on St. Nicholas Ave. in Smithtown, NY.
Bea had given up work to raise her three children, and afterwards found employment at the Smithtown Public Library.
© 1997 lkennedy@suffolk.lib.ny.us
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