Mile 113.0 - LBD Kenner, LA
113 LBD Kenner, LA
Kenner is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. State of Louisiana. It is the largest city in Jefferson Parish, United States, Louisiana's second-most populous parish, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 66,975 at the 2013 census. (Wiki)
From the Kenner Boardwalk Landing LBD 113 it is an easy walk over the levee to reach the old downtown of Kenner, which is strong in churches, parks, and theaters, but no easy access to paddler’s basic resupply needs. Except water, which of course you could find just about anywhere. Two distinctive whitewashed round towers rise above the levee like twin lighthouses, but one of them has a church bell painted on its side (looking like the Bell Telephone logo) and a skinny but tall brown cross on it. The other one is plain white. This is the Pilgrim Baptist Church. If its Sunday, and you’re in need of some spiritual healing before tackling the Big Easy, you have many choices, from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church (Catholic), to the Faith of Hope Missionary Baptist Church, to the aforementioned Pilgrim Baptist Church, to the New Birth Cathedral of Glory, to the Solid Rock Christian Fellowship, to the Spirit of Liberty Christian Fellowship Church, to Thomas United Methodist Church, to the Powerhouse Church, to Zion Community Development Center, to the Bible Way Holiness Church, to Sweet Home Christian Center, all found within 10 blocks of the boardwalk. If you are in need of any Christian literature there is Burton’s Good News Bookstore.
Mahalia Jackson, the Queen of Gospel, is buried in Providence Memorial Park, a mile from the river in Kenner. Queen Mahalia was born in the kitchen of a New Orleans batture house in 1911 (104LBD Carrolton Bend Batture Houses). By the time she died in 1972, she’d recorded more than 30 albums, sang for heads of state, and been called, “the single most powerful black woman in the United States.” She sang at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, just before Martin Luther King took the podium. When he died, she sang at his funeral.