Stevenson, Kenyon

Kenyon Stevenson (1895-1957) was the son of Charles Astor Stevenson and Viola Lane, both of Union Township, Boone County, Indiana. Stevenson was born on May 31, 1895, in Union Township, Boone County, Indiana. He was one of three children. His siblings were Fayette Pearl Carr and Hazel Frances Acherman. He was a graduate of Lebanon High School, Lebanon, Indiana, in 1912.

Kenyon Stevenson was a Second Lieutenant with the 21st Field Artillery and Fifth Division, United States Army, during World War I. He saw action in France and in Luxembourg. On the front, his unit saw some of the heaviest fighting towards the end of the war. The unit was highly commended and Kenyon Stevenson was among those officers who were later awarded the Army of the Occupation of Germany Medal. He wrote two army unit histories, History of the Fifth Division and History of the 21st Field Artillery.

Upon his return stateside, Kenyon Stevenson attended Indiana University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1920. He was also a member of the Sigma Delta Chi journalism fraternity. After graduation he married Bertha Louise Hervey (1896-1996) on June 1, 1920.

Louise Hervey was born on March 2, 1896, in Logansport, Indiana. She was the daughter of David Francis Hervey and Jessie Amanda James, also both of Logansport, Indiana. She died on December 12, 1996. She graduated from Indiana University in 1918, and then did graduate work at the University of Chicago. During this time she participated in the suffragist movement. She briefly became a social worker in Illinois after her graduation. After their marriage, they removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Kenyon Stevenson began work with Armstrong Cork Company as a copywriter. By 1930, he was the director of advertising.

Three of the Stevenson's four children were born in Pennsylvania; Mildred Louise (b.1921), Kenyon Jr. (1924-1992), and James David (b. 1925). The fourth child, Frances Jane (b. 1933), was born in Ohio. As a result of the Great Depression, corporate downsizing and reorganization, Stevenson was forced to either accept a lower paying position or resign. He resigned in about February 1932. He soon found work as a sales manager for the Goodyear Tire Company in Akron, Ohio. He lived in Akron for one year before finally moving to Hudson, Ohio, in 1933. He was a sales manager from 1933 until 1940 when he became an advertising executive for the Griswold-Echleman Company in Cleveland, Ohio.

From 1940 until his death on August 30, 1957, Kenyon Stevenson was a group leader and supervised a number of major accounts for Griswold-Echleman. He taught an advertising course at the Cleveland Advertising Club for five years. He was a member of that club, and also of the American Marketing Association, the National Industrial Advertisers Association, the Advertising Men's Post of the American Legion, Indiana Historical Society, Society of Indiana Planters, Hudson Historical Society, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He was a long time member of the Society of the Fifth Division (Red Diamond). Kenyon Stevenson served as the organization's national historian for many years, as well as serving a term as national president.

From the guide to the Kenyon Stevenson Genealogical Collection, 1646-1963, (Western Reserve Historical Society)