Lives Lost: Seneca Nation mourns 91-year-old, 2 daughters

During a recent procession for three Seneca women who died of COVID-19, community members lined the streets.

A giant Seneca Nation flag hung over a roadway as roughly 100 vehicles — school buses, ambulances, police cruisers and loved ones in cars — made their way through Salamanca, in the Allegany Territory of the tribe’s New York reservation.

“They’ve never done anything like that before for anyone,” said Jessica Ludwick, whose mother, grandmother and aunt died within weeks of each other. "It was a lot to take in, but it also, it made our hearts happy.”

The three women were well-known, well-loved tribal citizens and fell ill in May. Norma Kennedy, 91, died on May 23, followed by her daughters, Diane Kennedy, 71, on May 29 and Cindy Mohr, 65 — Ludwick’s mother — on June 12.

They left what Seneca Nation President Ricky Armstrong described as an “unmistakable emptiness” in the tribe. All three served the community, in their careers and beyond.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of stories remembering people who have died of the coronavirus around the world.

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Norma Kennedy worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for many years, became one of the first credentialed Native American alcohol counselors, chartered the Seneca Nation’s first social services program in the 1980s and served in tribal government, including as a peacemaker judge in tribal court.

Even at age 91, up until her illness, she taught a language program, referring to her adult students as “the kids.”

“She’d go, ‘The kids made me laugh today,’” her son-in-law Brian Mohr said. “But most of the ‘kids' were 55 years old, and she was 91, you know?”

Her daughter Diane Kennedy also worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, traveling across the...