Kenner Louisiana History & Facts

Kenner is a city in Louisiana, United States. It is the largest city in Jefferson Parish, and is the largest incorporated suburban city of New Orleans. The population was 66,448 at the 2020 census.

Originally inhabited by the Tchoupitoulas Indians, the area along the Mississippi River was the first land in the New Orleans metropolitan area on which Europeans set foot. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle landed there in 1682. In 1855, Kenner was founded by Minor Kenner on land that consisted of three plantation properties that had been purchased by the Kenner family. At the time, all land north of what is now Airline Highway was swampland.

In Kenner on May 10, 1870, "Gypsy" Jem Mace defeated Tom Allen for the heavyweight championship of the bare-knuckle boxing era; a monument marks the spot near the river end of Williams Boulevard.

From 1915 to 1931, a New Orleans streetcar line operated between New Orleans and Kenner. The line ran between the intersection of Rampart and Canal in New Orleans and the intersection of Williams Blvd and Jefferson Hwy in Kenner.

Kenner's growth began in the late 1950s when developers began subdividing, draining and filling the swampland in the northern half of the city. During the 1960s, the construction of Interstate 10 and improvements to Veterans Memorial Highway aided the rapid development of Kenner as a suburb of New Orleans.

In 1982, Pan Am Flight 759 crashed in a residential area of Kenner when a microburst forced it down. Eight people on the ground were killed, as were all 145 people aboard the aircraft. Six houses were completely destroyed and five more substantially damaged.

Kenner's coordinates are 30°0′35″N 90°15′2″W (30.009610, −90.250585), and the city has an elevation of 0 ft (0 m) above sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.2 square miles (39 km2), of which 15.1 square miles (39 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (0.7%) is water.

The city of Kenner is located on the west side of Greater New Orleans, in Jefferson Parish. Its boundaries are Lake Pontchartrain to the north, the Mississippi River to the south, the unincorporated areas of Metairie and River Ridge to the east, and St. Charles Parish to the west.

Famous Peoples From Kenner Louisiana

Christophe Kenner

(December 25, 1929 – January 25, 1976) was an American, New Orleans-based R&B singer and songwriter, best known for two hit singles in the early 1960s, "I Like It Like That" and "Land of 1000 Dances", which became staples in the repertoires of many other musicians.

Born in the farming community of Kenner, Louisiana, upriver from New Orleans, Kenner sang gospel music with his church choir. He moved to New Orleans when he was in his teens, to work as a stevedore.

In 1955 he made his first recordings, for a small label, Baton Records, without success. In 1957, he recorded his "Sick and Tired" for Imperial Records. Kenner's recording reached No. 13 on the Billboard R&B chart. Fats Domino covered it the next year, and his version became a hit on the pop chart. "Rocket to the Moon" and "Life Is Just a Struggle", both cut for Ron Records, were other notable songs Kenner recorded in this period.

Moving to another New Orleans label, Instant (which was initially called 'Valiant' before they discovered the name was already in use), he began to work with the pianist and arranger Allen Toussaint. In 1961, this collaboration produced "I Like It Like That", his biggest and first pop hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (covered in 1965 by the Dave Clark Five), and "Something You Got" (covered by Wilson Pickett, Alvin Robinson, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Johnny Rivers, Chuck Jackson, Earl Grant, Maxine Brown, Fats Domino, Bobby Womack, the Moody Blues, the Searchers, the American Breed, Fairport Convention, Bruce Springsteen, Them, and Jimi Hendrix). "I Like It Like That" sold over one million copies, was nominated for a Grammy Award, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America.

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