M. Kennon Harvill

M. Kennon Harvill 

Bossier City, LA – A Celebration of Life honoring M. Kennon Harvill will be held at 12:00 p.m., noon on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at Rose-Neath Funeral Home at 2201 Airline Drive in Bossier City, LA.   Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m. until the time of service.  Officiating will be Dr. Jim McDoniel, assisted by Dr. Larry Williams. Interment will immediately follow at  Rose-Neath Cemetery on Swan Lake Road in Bossier City. Honoring Kennon as pallbearers will be Greg Avery and Kennon’s grandsons, Drake Averitt, Alex Harvill, Jacob Harvill, Shepard Harvill and Spencer Harvill. Serving as honorary pallbearers will be his neighbors and residents  of Brookdale Senior Retirement. 

Kennon was born on June 28, 1939, in Plain Dealing, LA, the oldest child of M.E. “Jack” Harvill and Claudia Rance Harvill Browning, both of whom predeceased him.  Following a lengthy and  valiant fight with Parkinson’s disease, Dad won his battle when his Heavenly Father gently called him home in the early morning hours of Tuesday, February 6, 2024.  

Following graduation from Plain Dealing High School in 1958, Dad convinced the love of his life, Alice Faye Cook Harvill, to marry him and they began their adventurous life journey together.  That 59-year journey included college life in Natchitoches at Northwestern where Dad graduated and Mother had children!   Following graduation they moved to Dallas, TX for three years where Dad began working as an accountant with U.S. Steel.   He was in the downtown crowd watching and waving as President John F. Kennedy drove by just moments before history was made.  Following the birth of their fourth child, Dad and Mother made their way back home to Bossier City to begin their journey in the real estate industry.   

Dad diversified his real estate interests as a lifelong realtor, appraiser, subdivision developer, commercial and residential home builder, and Church’s Chicken franchisee.  He loved people and he loved what he did.  Through the years he served on many committees and organizations, often serving as president, including the Boards of Directors of Willis-Knighton Bossier, the National Franchisee Board, the Bossier Chamber of Commerce, Red River Valley Bank, Toastmasters and Bossier Medical Center.  

After many years, Dad and Mother retired and continued their journey in life enjoying traveling throughout North America, making wonderful memories forever etched in their minds, enjoying even more their many loving friends, waking up late, playing harder, laughing longer, louder, and loving even more.  

Dad accepted Jesus at an early age and enjoyed a lifelong loving relationship with God. He shared his love, wisdom and teachings with his children and lived his life as God’s gift to him.  Dad’s journey has led him to his eternal heavenly home, one he spent his entire life walking toward and where we know with full faith and confidence that he is in the loving arms of God.  

Dad is survived by his daughter, Robin S. Harvill; his sons, Jack K. Harvill and wife, Wendy, and Corey D. Harvill and wife, Dee Dee.  He is also survived by his grandchildren, Lacey H. Kuehner, her husband, Jeff and their children, Ava and Mason; Kenndyl H. Myers and her children, Kensley, Kaydin, Wyatt, Dyson and Travis; Drake Averitt; Alex Harvill, Jacob Harvill, his wife, Diane and their children, Paisley and Waylon; Shepard Harvill and Spencer Harvill; Taylor Summers and her children, Raylie and Raegan; Christian Thornton and his children, Jane Claire and Elijah; and Isabella Taunton; brothers and sisters, June Henninger and husband, Gary;  Lee Harvill, and wife, Mimi; Jane Beckham and husband, Charles; Joanne Fayard and Michael Harvill; numerous nieces and nephews and a multitude of loving friends. He is predeceased by his wife and life partner, Alice Faye Cook Harvill; his son, Ragan K. Harvill; his brother, R.W. “Buddy” Harvill; his half-sister, Lavenia McClain and husband, Cecil.  

The family extends their warmest thanks to Dad’s loving care givers, Joanne Pannell, Lisa Jackson, Ira Dean, Margaret Payne, Marilyn Youngblood and Jo Ellen Griggs, all of whom cared for Dad as if he were their own.  Loving thanks also to the wonderful staff of Brookdale Senior Living for their support, care and compassion.  Dad loved his retirement home and neighbors, who also consistently voted him Mardi Gras King!   

But God, who is rich in compassion and mercy, and because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by His wonderful grace! Ephesians 2 verses 4 - 6.  

We celebrate today with full love and joy in our hearts, and while Dad will be missed, he will be forever remembered, and we will see him again!  

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the following 501(c)(3) entities:  SOCKS, Inc., POB 5261, Bossier City, LA 71171; Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, POB 32141, New York, NY 10087; Bossier Kids, Inc., 2125 Airline Drive, Bossier City, LA 71111; and Broadmoor Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana, 4110 Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA 71105.