VIDEO: Kennedy Remembers Late Mayor

KENNEDY, Ala. (WCBI)- The town of Kennedy, Alabama is mourning the loss of their mayor Mrs. Rose McDaniel.

The community says it’s going to take time to heal from the loss …

But they’re leaning on one another and remembering the good times and sweet memories.

She was 66- but full of life.

Her given name was Rosalyn McDaniel but the late mayor herself was quick to let you know what she wanted to be called…

“She was a great lady, she was easy to work with… anything we needed or wanted, she tried to make sure we got it done here,” says Town Clerk Becky Atkins.

Friends and co-workers speak of her in the utmost regard.

“Ms. Rose was a sweet sweet soul. She was kinda like a mother to everybody.Several different situations she’s bent over backwards to help me sew patches on shirts. Anything of that nature, she always seemed to have a remedy or someway to fix anything- she was just old fashioned and what you seen is what you got. Everyday, she was the same Ms. Rose everyday,” says Police Chief Jake Fowler.

Like Fowler, former mayor Tim Jenkins also refers to her as the towns “mother hen”.

“She and I had a mother-son relationship kinda and you know it’s a sudden loss, not only for me but her family and the community and she was a wonderful person, great personality and she’s deeply going to be missed,” says Jenkins.

They knew her passions and they all involved ‘having fun’.

“Her main thing was getting swing sets for the kids,” says Atkins

And I too remembered her joking nature during a previous interview.

“She never met a stranger! She was just everybody’s friend,” says Atkins.

Ms. Rose fell ill with the flu and was in the ICU for nine days before passing.

Her close friends have advice to the public.

“If you know you’ve got the flu, stay home- away from everybody!” says Atkins.

Residents say the community is healing as one.

“The town of Kennedy is just a wonderful place in general. Everybody is close knit and it’s a real family oriented town and somebody as important as Mrs. Rose especially passes, the town always just mends together,” says Fowler.

Jenkins says Mrs. Rose had a passion for libraries and they hope to rename the town library in her memory.