I'm Linda Kennedy, a first-generation college graduate who works to break the social systemic barriers that held back the generations before me, including my parents.

Welcome. I'm so happy you're here.

The work here is a by-product of the sacrifices of strong women who preceded me and to whom I am profoundly grateful.

The Silver Lining News is a story about that (see below), and today, it now serves as a portfolio of my work at graduate school.

Please take a minute to look around. You can find my full professional portfolio at lindatkennedy.com.

One "woman's work" in the 1970s brought you to this woman's work today.

My parents, Rebecca and Charles Kennedy, are credited for my fierce drive to be a journalist. My accomplishments in the field are a silver lining to their story, characterized by a culture still evolving from a globally male-dominant workforce, especially in journalism.
On the SLN content page, you'll see a video from 1970s Ireland wherein Una Corbert describes the kitchen as essential to "women's work."

HER STORY/MY STORY

I included it here because my parents started their marriage at that time when my dad took great pride in being able to provide financially for my mother while she cared for their home. And Una would be right then, at least for my mother; the kitchen was essential to her work, not only as a homemaker but as an entrepreneur.
After my parents lost their first baby, my mother suffered relentless grief, accentuated by the empty hours she had after her daily domestic responsibilities.

She was ready to rejoin the workforce she had enjoyed in her premarital years, but Charles wasn't prepared for her to do that. "You can get a job so long as you find it and start today," he told her one morning as he left for work.
So she did. She circled jobs in the newspaper that morning, landed a secretary job by noon, and started that day. After sharing her accomplishment with Charles at the dinner table that evening, he told her to quit the next day.

"Okay, go in and resign tomorrow."

Rebecca Kennedy McConnell,
Founding Editor, with her husband of 35 year, Leonard

Linda T. Kennedy
Editor

Rebecca's personal stationary header.

My mother Rebecca quit the job but not the pursuit of professional fulfillment — she didn't give up. Her kitchen table became her home office, where she started her cocktail napkin business plan for "The Silver Lining News," (SLN) a publication that would find hopeful angles amidst the most troubling issues of the day. She applied for a business license and hired an attorney to register her brand copyrights (which we maintain today). Limited resources then meant beyond the stories she wrote on a home typewriter, SLN remained more a dream than a viable growing business. However, I grew up watching my mother fulfill an accomplished career in tenacity.

That memory in our news-consumer family inspired me to sign up for my first journalism class in high school and culminates in my portfolio on these pages today. Rebecca showed me what it means to dream big and never resign from the chase. And Charles? He evolved. Eventually, he drove Rebecca across state borders to distribute her first copies of the publication, a requirement to hold her business license. While he was part of the culture that held women back in his earlier years, decades later, my dad was the first to encourage an education and a career. After he died, my mother's second husband, Leonard, became SLN's next assistant editor.

There are a few articles here that I wrote to establish the SLN voice after Rebecca claimed the silverliningnews.com domain when she brought her dream into the digital age. Read more about the SLN voice here.

I live my life reporting and writing hungry, placing the highest value on a commitment to old-school, shoe-leather journalism - no matter the digital delivery tools.

I work with only the freshest ingredients - my own inherited tenacity, enterprising ideas, and original sourcing and reporting.
Thank you for visiting.

"Everything works out. I mean everything. As long as you believe it will. When you do, you will find the silver lining." -Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc. founder.

I designed this site to honor Rebecca and Charles. It's a nod to what Rebecca's publication might have looked like had she started it today.

When Rebecca conceived the idea for this publication, attending a university like Harvard wouldn't have crossed her mind; Radcliffe and Harvard's admissions were not completely merged until 1999. As a matter of fact, a 1975 New York Times article describes the changes that were happening for women at Harvard at the time. Rebecca boldly became a self-taught publisher.

This site holds the work I produced in Harvard's live web classrooms, an education that wouldn't have happened without my parent's sacrifices. Mom and Dad: thank you.

The Silver Lining News celebrates
the human struggle that makes endurance
one of life's most significant rewards.