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.
I have two appointment TV shows: "Shark Tank" and "American Idol," both on ABC.
by Mark KennedyThis photo from the 1980s captures a rare moment in railroad history.
by Mark KennedyFor 90-year-old Bud Parks, building model boats is more than just a hobby. "It's been a lifesaver for me," says Parks, a widower whose wife, Mackie, died in 2020.
by Mark KennedyDear COVID-19,
by Mark KennedyFrom the 1960s until the early 2000s, the John Totten Discount Furniture Store was an East Ridge tradition.
by Mark KennedyIn this space in August, we told readers about a lucky Chattanooga family who won a year of free travel accommodations in the "Live Anywhere on Airbnb" contest.
by Mark KennedyWhen I was a young reporter back in the 1980s, I would sometimes find myself late at night in the newspaper morgue (clip file room) talking to John Popham, a former managing editor of The Chattanooga Times.
by Mark KennedyFor much of the 20th century, the place to go for fresh produce in Chattanooga was an open-air market on 11th Street where farmers from across Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia came to sell the fruits of their labor.
by Mark KennedyGrowing up, Kaelan Byrd of Flintstone, Georgia, was the oldest of five children. At points in her childhood, she wished for a baby sister, but grew up with four younger brothers instead.
by Mark KennedyAn odd result of the pandemic is that Chattanooga's comedy-club scene got a shot in the arm. A joke jab, so to speak.
by Mark KennedyMost weekdays around the noon hour, the Citizen Cemetery near the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga becomes the stage for a reverential little bagpipes concert.
by Mark KennedyWhen she moved to Middle Tennessee from the suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana, after high school, Erika Burnett immediately felt at home at Tennessee State University in Nashville.
by Mark KennedyNeither of my parents went to college.
by Mark KennedyThis 1989 photo featured in the Chattanooga News-Free Press recalls a time when the Tennessee riverfront downtown was little more than a muddy shoreline.
by Mark KennedyWilma Cale, 95, has designed more interiors than Rooms to Go.
by Mark KennedyGather around, children. Come sit in a circle. I have a question to ask you.
by Mark KennedyBaby boomers will remember this scary-looking guy.
by Mark KennedyTake a moment to ponder the thought of walking 85,000 miles.
by Mark KennedyWhen I was a boy, my father would call me Marcus Aurelius.
by Mark KennedyThe children in this photo, pictured outside the Pro Re Bona Day Nursery in East Chattanooga in 1959, would be in their late 60s today.
by Mark Kennedy