Kennahan Family       Maple 392

 John Cecil Kennahan lived at 193 Hancock Avenue in Jamaica and for twenty years was the proprietor and editor of the newspaper, “The Long Island Farmer”. He had a country home in Great Neck Hills. He had also been the editor of the North Hempstead “Record” and the Oyster Bay “Pilot.”

 He was born in Ireland around 1847 and settled with his family in Jamaica when he was three years old. When he was just a child, he became a newsboy and opened several newsstands. Later he sold his stands to the Long Island News Company and started a printing business. He later became connected with the New York Herald and was made the Long Island correspondent for a Brooklyn paper. He died at the age of 72 in 1919.

 His son, George Hollis Kennahan, born in 1880 was the first Mayor of the incorporated village of Great Neck Plaza. On his maternal side, he was descendant from the Webbs, one of the first thirteen families who settled on the east end of  Long Island in 1640. His mother’s maiden name was Eva Webb. The Webbs came from New England and bought land from the Montauk Indians. George’s father, John was a good friend with developer of many Queens neighborhoods, Frederick Dunton. When Dunton was looking for a name for one of his new settlements, John suggested George’s middle name, hence Hollis was born.

 George died in 1946 only two hours after being re-elected for his sixth term as Mayor. He was 67. He had also been a publisher and dabbled in real estate. His wife was the former Marion Witsen, and he had two children, daughter Joyce (married name Gatty) and son G. Hollis, Jr. and served in the army in the rank of Major. The children are not buried in this plot.