INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Jerry Kennedy turns 90 in May, and this year as in every year since 1951, he’s mailed handmade works of art to friends and family across the world wishing them a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. In 2018, he mailed more than 200 cards.

It all started when he was serving as a machine gunner with the 2nd Infantry Division (Indianhead) in Korea. One day, the mail clerk brought him a card from his father.

“We had nothing to read up on the frontline and the card passed from bunker to bunker. It took 24 hours to read as the card went back and forth, and a company clerk said why don’t you send your Dad a card?”

In the middle of a war, cards are not readily available, so Kennedy had to be resourceful. He crafted one out of shirt form cardboard, and mailed it to his father. “After that I made up a card every year and mailed it to him. Then my brothers and sisters asked for them, and then their kids. Each year someone else asks me, so I add them to my list.”

Over the years, he has refined his craft, and each card has an individual message with poems and songs of Ireland, and colorful characters he gathers and scans on to card stock. “I do it all by hand,” he said.

He also personalizes the stamps to go with the cards. Sometimes he uses USPS Forever stamps of favorite movie stars, but he also uses Zazzle.com to create his own.

Kennedy was born in Peru, IN. His father went to school with the composer Cole Porter, and as a child he was surrounded by Irish-American families. He has been to Ireland several times and visited the family farm in County Tipperary.

He is also a Notre Dame fan, and has attended almost all of the football games over the years. On Sunday, March 11, 2018, at a ceremony at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, he was declared “Irishman of the Year” by the Ancient Order of Hibernians of Indianapolis.

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