Mark Kennedy is a columnist whose work appears in several sections of the Times Free Press. His human interest column "Life Stories" appears each Thursday in the Region section. He also writes the "Test Drive" automotive column in the Saturday and Sunday Business sections and the "Family Life" column in the Sunday Life section. He is contributing editor of the Edge business magazine. Kennedy has won the Tennessee Press Association's first-place awards for column writing 10 times, and is also a five-time winner of the newspaper's Best of the Best contest in the columnist/reporter category. He has also been the newspaper's features editor, Sunday editor and opinion editor. Before the merger of Chattanooga's two newspapers in 1998, he was the coordinating editor of the Chattanooga Times. Kennedy lives on Signal Mountain with his wife and two sons.
At some point in my young adulthood, my mother took me aside and told me something brutally honest.
by Mark KennedyThis 1960 photograph of a fire hose being aimed at a downtown crowd is one of the iconic scenes of the civil rights era in Chattanooga.
by Mark KennedyColleges spend a ton of time and money trying to turn freshmen into sophomores.
by Mark KennedyOne day last week, our 18-year-old son was simultaneously watching three video screens.
by Mark KennedyWith locations from Chattanooga to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and points in between, Moskin's was once billed as America's largest credit clothing chain "with over a million satisfied customers."
by Mark KennedyIt's a topsy-turvy time we are living in. We're all cooped up. Antsy.
by Mark KennedyA child's first encounter with death is hard.
by Mark KennedyHonk if you recognize the entrance to the Bachman Tunnels.
by Mark KennedyDianne Kosarin is not one to twiddle her green thumbs.
by Mark KennedyThe Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 S Sedan might sound like a mouthful of alphabet soup, but it's a tasty ride, nonetheless. Part of the tyranny of the SUV-era is that fewer and fewer compact luxury sedans are being made today — especially ones like the AMG C63 S, which is both elegantly designed and outrageously engineered.
by Mark KennedyPut her there, pal! Give me some skin!
by Mark KennedyFirst jobs out of college are often challenging, but Cigna's Ra'Shunda Hackett has risen to the occasion.
by Mark KennedyI've always been fascinated by the so-called law of unintended consequences.
by Mark KennedyThere's nothing ominous-looking about the Cadillac CT6 Platinum AWD sedan. It appears to be a normal executive car — a little heavy on the starch, maybe.
by Mark KennedyOn the afternoon of Friday, April 10, at precisely 2 p.m., Madison Smyth sat down with a phone in her hand and resolve in her heart.
by Mark KennedyYou'd have to be a member of the Silent Generation (born 1928-1945) — or older — to remember much about this downtown Chattanooga church building.
by Mark KennedyI'm an older dad with younger children. I was 43 years old when our first son was born, 48 years old when our second son arrived.
by Mark KennedySome mechanical engineering students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga this spring got a taste of how good things can, and do, fall apart.
by Mark KennedyCamp Joy is a Baptist ministry based in Harrison, Tenn., that has served more than 100,000 children through the decades.
by Mark KennedyI've been binge-watching a series on Netflix called "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."
by Mark Kennedy