‘If she was on your team, you were so lucky.’ Miami women’s rights activist, lawyer dies
For years, Patricia Margaret Kennedy fought for women’s rights.
As the chairwoman of the National Organization for Women’s 1984 convention in Miami Beach, Kennedy helped bring in Geraldine Ferraro, who became the first female nominee for U.S. vice president.
Kennedy decided later in life to give up her job as executive vice president of Xerox Corp. to go back to school to become a lawyer.
The longtime South Florida lawyer and women’s rights activist died Saturday from complications of multiple myeloma. She was 72.
“Fighting for women’s rights was in her soul and in her gut,” said her best friend Ellen Leesfield. “She knew the difficulties of women trying to make their way in the working world.”
Kennedy, who was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on Aug. 19, 1947, loved reading, traveling and listening to music from the 1950s and ‘60s.
“Pat was always positive, always saw the glass half full,” Leesfield said. “She was always a team player. If she was on your team, you were so lucky.”
She got involved in NOW in the early 1970s “because it felt natural,” said Patricia Ireland, who worked with her at the time and remained best friends with her. The NOW convention in Miami was a big deal because it was the first time a convention was held in Florida after a six-year boycott over the state’s failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
“I knew her as a very good, strong leader and somebody who was a lot of fun,” said Ireland, who at the time was with the Equal Rights Amendment office in Miami-Dade County. “If you’re going to do work that is so intense, making it fun is a real art.”
Kennedy took the sales skills she learned working at Xerox to teach others about fundraising and marketing ideas, Ireland said. She went around the state getting approvals, input and made decisions about shaping the convention. Everything she did was with a flair, which complemented her serious leadership.
Kennedy once rented a bright red convertible to attend a NOW state counsel meeting, which Ireland said described her well.
After graduating law school at Nova Southeastern University, Kennedy, who was in her early 40s at the time, began her new career focusing on corporate law. She then went on to practice personal injury law.
“She took what she learned in NOW and took that into the legal practice, and that included some very real compassion,” said Ireland, the former president of NOW.
Kennedy was loyal and supportive to her friends and family. She organized trips and parties for her friends to have fun, saying that she was the one of her friends who knew “how to play.” Over the decades, besides sharing laughs and politics, the two shared tears and support, both having battled cancer.
“It was fun growing old with her,” Ireland said.
Kennedy is survived by her partner of 30 years, Danica Campbell, sisters Jackie Buchanan and Cindy Lockerman, brother Billy Kennedy, as well as great nieces and nephews.
A small private ceremony is planned for Thursday and a celebration of life at a later time. Donations may be made in Kennedy’s memory to the Women’s Emergency Network at http://www.wen-online.org/.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 2:44 PM.
