Excerpt from Jessie Kenney's unpublished autobiography #1
Dublin Core
Title
Excerpt from Jessie Kenney's unpublished autobiography #1
Subject
Family
Description
Excerpt from Jessie Kenney’s unpublished autobiography, “The Flame and the Flood”.
In this excerpt, Jessie shares memories and anecdotes about Annie. This includes Annie’s “heart trouble”, which meant that she would very quickly cry or sob when she felt hurt or troubled. Annie’s easily shed tears went against the Lancashire custom to cry only when someone dies.
Annie was also a rebel in the fashion department, as she “could not bear a thing tight around her wrists, her head, or her waist", which meant that she hardly ever wore her “stays”, a type of corset. She would say that she preferred “to be comfortable to being beautiful”. Jessie writes: “However m[y] sister Molly need not have troubled about her figure for many years to come, as the Suffragette Movement in its early days would strip the fat and flesh from her bones.” Despite this, Annie “loved fun and made friends wherever she went.”
In this excerpt, Jessie shares memories and anecdotes about Annie. This includes Annie’s “heart trouble”, which meant that she would very quickly cry or sob when she felt hurt or troubled. Annie’s easily shed tears went against the Lancashire custom to cry only when someone dies.
Annie was also a rebel in the fashion department, as she “could not bear a thing tight around her wrists, her head, or her waist", which meant that she hardly ever wore her “stays”, a type of corset. She would say that she preferred “to be comfortable to being beautiful”. Jessie writes: “However m[y] sister Molly need not have troubled about her figure for many years to come, as the Suffragette Movement in its early days would strip the fat and flesh from her bones.” Despite this, Annie “loved fun and made friends wherever she went.”
Creator
Kenney, Jessie
Source
Kenney Papers, University of East (UEA) Anglia Archives
Date
1964-66
Rights
Copyright: Estate of Jessie Kenney. All rights reserved. Included here by kind permission of Warwick Kenney-Taylor (son of Annie Kenney) and later generations of the Kenney and Taylor families.
Format
jpeg image file
Language
English (United Kingdom)
Identifier
JK/4/2/2/3
Text Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Paper
Collection
Tags
Citation
Kenney, Jessie, “Excerpt from Jessie Kenney's unpublished autobiography #1,” Suffragette Stories, accessed June 12, 2025, https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/items/show/56.