Rosemary Gugert met Kenneth Chew Kennedy at Josephine and Hunter Collins’ New Year’s Eve party. He immediately asked her out and she took him to an after-Sugar Bowl party at Betty Kennard Neal’s. On their fifth date, the same night as Rosemary won her first and only election, Ken asked her to marry him. They were engaged on January 17, 1956, and were married on April 28, 1956, at St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church with a reception at Rosemary’s family home on Robert Street.
Rosemary loves blush pink, and that color was reflected throughout the wedding, from her dress to the flowers used for the church and the reception. (This was the first big wedding that Donald Heumann helped facilitate.) Her dress was blush pink peau de soie edged with Alençon lace trimmed with tiny seed pearls. She also wore a flowing illusion veil. Her bouquet was composed of phalaenopsis orchids and lilies-of-the-valley. The bridesmaids wore short blush pink dresses and carried bouquets of pale pink stock and violets.
Reverend John S. Land performed the ceremony at 7:30 p.m., amid pink cathedral candles entwined with clusters of mountain laurel and huckleberry. The garden reception was held at the Gugert home on Robert Street. After a beautiful reception, the bride and groom were off to the Pontchartrain Hotel to stay in Lyle Aschaffenburg’s suite. The next day, they went to Waveland, Miss., and stayed at Aunt Lise Matthews’ house. They drove to Silver Beach in Destin, Fla., for another night and then were off to Sarasota, Fla., where they stayed a week in a fabulous cabana right on the water.
Ken and Rosemary resided in New Orleans where he worked for Metal Goods Corporation and then for the P. Thompson Tool Supply Company. After attending McGehee School and Sweet Briar College, Rosemary worked at D.H. Holmes for Mr. Gresham, filled in as a gym teacher at McGehee and taught piano lessons, which she still does today!
