History of Kentucky, five volumes, edited by Judge Charles Kerr,
American Historical Society, New York & Chicago, 1922, Vol. V, p. 409,
McCracken Co.

     WILLIAM KENNETT GARDNER, who left life just at the threshold of
promising achievement, was born at Paducah October 29, 1900, and died
just a few weeks before attaining his twenty-first birthday, on
September 22, 1921.  He graduated from the Paducah High School June 5,
1919, and thereafter for two years was rapidly growing in wisdom and
efficiency as an associate of his father's furniture business.  He
shared the political views of the democratic party, and from the age of
eleven had been a member of the First Baptist Church and was active in
the Young Business Men's Bible Class, for which he acted as pianist.  In
other ways he was identified with the musical life of this community,
was a member of the Paducah Country Club, and a member of the Alumni
Club.  The Alumni Club of Paducah prepared the following resolutions
that may properly supplement the brief record of an all too brief life:
     "Recently the all-leveling hand of death reached out and touched
one of our number, the first of this fraternity to be called to the
Beyond since our organization.  In that summons this club has lost a
friend and a comrade, a member whose absence all of us keenly feel.
     "Those of us who knew Kennett Gardner personally as companion and
friend and chum, feel most acutely the silence when his name is spoken. 
Around the club table where he met with us there is a chair that is
vacant, and the voice once lifted in happy fellowship is heard no
longer.  His presence, his personality, his kindly advice and willing
service to the organization all are recollected.  But in the passing of
Kennett Gardner this club has not alone been loser.  Aside from those
who were closest and dearest, and whose grief can never be assuaged, not
even by the healing scythe of time, his passing is felt in a broader
sense.  For it is the young men of the type of Kennett Gardner that
constitute the future citizenship of our city.  It is to young men of
his splendid character and lofty ideals to whom Paducah looks for her
leadership in the coming years.  Men of his stamp are rare and Paducah
needs them.  That this club should have lost Kennett Gardner is a source
of sorrow, that the city should have lost him is to be deplored.  There
can be no progress without leadership; there can be no real and lasting
and effective leadership without energy and intelligence and character,
without vision and hope and enthusiasm.  These attributes Kennett
Gardner possessed in marked degrees.  They served to endear him to every
member of this fraternity, to popularize him everywhere.  Whatever
measure of success would have come to Kennett Gardner in the passing
years and surely success would have come to him, that reward could not
be richer than the deserving heart and mind and soul which merited them
by his own stalwart manhood.
     "We of the Alumni Club pay this last tribute to our fellow worker
in the sincerity of appreciation, and in the full knowledge that our
words are but futile against the oppressive grief which has come to
those who loved him most.  But in our own sorrow at his passing we
sympathize most keenly with his parents and to them we humbly bring
condolence as best we may.
     "As a member of the club, the death of Kennett Gardner is severely
felt by this organization.  No member served more willingly or with more
zeal and enthusiasm, none worked with greater skill and appreciation in
the tasks that presented opportunity for service.  In the musical life
of the club he meant much to us; and in that sphere he is especially
missed.  In every other activity of our fraternity his death has
occasioned the deepest sorrow."

Gardner
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http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/mccracken/gardner.wk.txt