January 19, 1943 ~ August 30, 2020

Gladys Marie (Garrett) Hennequin, 77, of Lee’s Summit passed away peacefully at home from COVID-19 on Sunday, August 30, 2020. She was born in Sedalia, MO on January 19, 1943 the daughter of the late Chester and Helen Marie (Klein) Garrett.

Raised in Sedalia, Missouri she moved to Lee’s Summit in 1959 when her dad helped to open the Western Electric plant and she graduated from Lee’s Summit High School in 1961. She met the love of her life, Chip Hennequin, while working as a cashier at the Unity Village cafeteria. After a wedding at the Silent Unity Chapel on New Year’s Eve 1969 her next 10 years were spent as the ultimate devoted Navy wife, raising three children while Chip was often away on sea duty, while living in five different states. In 1980 she got her wish to come home, and she and Chip have resided in Lee’s Summit since 1980. She was active in her community, volunteering at the Lee’s Summit Senior Center and at our Lady of the Presentation parish where she was a devoted parishioner.

Gladys was a kind, sweet and loving woman, with a great deal of patience, a handy skill for 50 years of marriage with Chip. She fiercely loved her three children, calling them her most special blessings and was delighted to become a grandmother with the birth of her first grandchild Stephanie. A clean home and home cooked meals – always cooking complete meals every night from scratch for her children – were hallmarks of Gladys, as well as a delightfully mischievous sense of humor, and a deep faith and love of God. She loved cooking (and cooking shows), sewing, making beautiful quilts, reading, her flowers and travelling. She was known to say that she beautified the country by planting flowers in the yards of all the places the family lived when Chip was in the Navy. Gladys will be missed not just by her family, but by all her friends. A sweeter friend than Gladys was not to be found.

Surviving family members include her devoted husband, Chip Hennequin of Lee’s Summit; sons: David Hennequin and his wife Tricia of Portsmouth, NH and James Hennequin of Lee’s Summit, MO; daughter: Sandi Hennequin and her husband Steve Marchand of North Hampton, NH; and her beloved grandchildren: Stephanie Hennequin of Portsmouth, NH, Kirk Hennequin and his fiancée Kelsey Harper of Brookline, MA, Samantha Hennequin of Portsmouth, NH, and Abbi and Maggie Marchand of North Hampton, NH. Gladys also leaves behind her siblings: Mary Jo Gable of Lee’s Summit, MO; Susan Johnson of St. Peter’s, MO; Mike Garrett and his wife Cathy of Longwood, FL; and Mark Garrett and his wife Gail of Lee’s Summit, MO; and many beloved aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews. She loved her extended family and always cherished the opportunity to gather on a farm or in a church basement for a family reunion.

In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to Operation Breakthrough, an organization that Gladys deeply cared about.

A celebration of Gladys’s life will be planned when it is safe to get together.

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