C. E. Kennedy, King Division, USS Helena CA-75, 1949 - 1951, passed away early this AM, 11 November 2008.
Prior to being assigned to the CA-75, C. E. served on the USS Astoria CL-90 and a second address.

To see the 1949 King Division picture and C. E. Kennedy click HERE! and scroll down to page 29, King Division.

C. E. Kennedy does not have a computer and was not up on the many links on our USS Helena web pages.
He called your editor a week or so ago about a COMMUNIQUE he sent to his Mother in 1950.
I advised him to have it copied and to keep the original with the copy to me.
On 9 November 2008, I posted the COMMUNIQUE on our CA-75 web link. To view it click HERE!

In his letter to me, post marked 5 November 2008, C. E. asked to have the COMMUNIQUE posted in our USS Helena Organization Newsletter.
He also asked to have his friends name, Lester J. Shuda added to our TAPS page, which I did.
We also have a TAPS page as part of our newsletter,
so I decided to forward C. E.'s letter with the COMMUNIQUE to our President and newsletter editor, Gale Udell.

I then decided to call C. E. to confirm his assignment on the Astoria. His wife Doris answered the phone and asked me who I was.
I told her that C. E. had called me and that we both served in the King Division on the USS Helena CA-75.

She told me that C. E. had passed away LAST NIGHT!!!!
To say I was shocked and without words is putting it mildly.

Doris was well composed and we carried on a short conversation.
She told me how C. E. loved anything and everything HELENA and that he would be happy to know he passed on VETERANS DAY!

This happened as I was finishing with the posting of C. E.'s friend, Lester J. Shuda's passing.

Signed---David J. Brouchoud, USS Helena web page manager.