Lois Ruth Kennel, 92, died Feb. 7, 2025, at Charter House in Rochester, Minn. She was born Feb. 22, 1932, in Harleysville, Pa., to Henry Landis Ruth and Susan Alderfer Landis.
She graduated from Lancaster Mennonite High School in 1950, ranking first in her class and meeting her future husband, Arthur John Kennel (1928-2014). She attended Eastern Mennonite College and Goshen College and received a degree in secondary education with an English major from Temple University, Philadelphia, in 1956. She studied French in the French University (1970-72) when her husband moved the family to Kinshasa, Zaire, to practice medicine. Her employment included summers working at the Pearl S. Buck Welcome House in Philadelphia and teaching English for 11 years in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Minnesota. She partnered with her husband in the family llama-breeding business, Kennelllamas, from 1981 to 2011. She served the Rochester Music Guild between 1975 and 2005 and on the board of Choral Arts Ensemble between 1994 and 2000. A charter member of Rochester Mennonite Church, she provided leadership as song leader, secretary, historian and women’s Bible study leader and by attending conferences to keep RMC connected to the national and international church. She directed a junior youth choir at Evangel United Methodist Church in Rochester for 20 years. She sang in the Choral Arts Ensemble in Rochester from 1993 to 2000 and the Rochester Symphony Orchestra Chorale for over 40 years.
A celebration of life will take place at 1 p.m. June 10 at Charter House in Rochester.
