The Nat Kennedy Family

Facts by Goldie Price Pugh

Nat Kennedy, born in Cherokee County near Ponta, married Frances (Tilley) Price in 1899. Frances, at that time, was the mother of a daughter, Goldie, and two sons, both deceased. In April, 1900, Buster Kennedy was born and lived his entire life in Jacksonville, except for two years spent in New York City in the early 1920s, when he worked for the L. E. Frank interests.

Frances (Pig) continues to live in her own home at 506 North Ragsdale Street. She is 98 years of age and can well remember the stories her mother, Miriah Tilley, told of the slave days she had experienced. Miriah lived to be nearly 100 years old and died in 1928. Her family took the name Tilley after the Civil War as they were slaves of a family of that name.

Goldie was born in Cherokee County and first married Sylvester Gaston. A few years following his death, she married George Pugh, who died in 1966. Goldie Price Pugh taught school in Frankston for ten years, and in Cherokee County for 30 years. She retired from the Jacksonville public school system in 1969, after teaching first grade for 18 years.

Buster is well remembered for his many years at the Liberty Hotel when it was the "grand hotel" here. He worked there from 1923 until he became ill in 1959. He died in 1964. Another member of the family well remembered in Jacksonville was Susie (Tilley) Barnett, sister of Frances. She died in 1964.

Buster Kennedy, about 1939, when he worked at the Liberty Hotel, a gathering place of renown during the "tomato deal" years.