Although it could date some of us to admit this, remember that Sister Sledge number We are Family? Well, we had all our brothers and sisters with us as we gathered in San Antonio last month to renew the ties that bind. Nearly 150 of us turned out for the three-day affair last month. Besides lounging by the hotel pool or doing some leisurely shopping at the outlet malls or braving the Texas heat to hit Six Flags and Sea World, we spent Saturday afternoon touring the Alamo and other San Antonio sites and that evening during the family banquet we honored the senior members of the family and those who served in the military during a proud and moving recognition of our family’s tradition of wisdom and service. Speaking of moving, aunts, uncles and cousins showed off some sweet moves as we ended the night by grooving to the smooth beats of a dj to close out the reunion’s second day.
The family participated in Sunday morning worship services at Porter Memorial C.M.E. Church, where Reverend Kenneth McKindra is the pastor. Reverend Freeman McKindra, Jr., currently pastor of Miles Memorial C.M.E. Church in Tacoma, Washington, brought the message “In Due Season.”
We did manage to squeeze in a little bit of business. Good news on the McKindra LLC — Aunt Juanita and Uncle Freeman announced that the company generated a profit for the first time in its history. The funds, which were reinvested in the business, came from multiple sources including selling timber cut on the company’s land and selling the mineral rights to an oil company to drill on the land. We’re also deeply involved in the restoration efforts for St. John Cemetery in Plummerville. The cemetery, one of 30 African-American cemeteries in Conway County, is the burial place of at least two documented Civil War veterans and the loved ones from multiple local families in the community, including Frank and Ella McKindra, the McKindra Family’s patriarch and matriarch.
The family will gather in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 2010 and in Denver, Colorado, in 2012.
McKindra Weblog 