Frank Kennedy (died 1868) was the second husband of Scarlett O' Hara and the father of her second child Ella. He was originally Scarlett's sister Suellen O'Hara's beau and he was engaged to her for many years before Scarlett tricked him into marriage.
Appearance[]
Frank Kennedy was described as having whiskers and looking even older than he was. While his hair is greying it can be assumed it was originally blonde, as his daughter's. His daughter, who Scarlett finds ugly, looks just like him.
Biography[]
Frank Kennedy first appears at the barbecue at Twelve Oaks. He is a beau of Suellen, and he starts to consider marrying her. Frank Kennedy goes off to fight in 1861. He survives, coming back in 1865. With his last money he purchases a store and a woodmill, creating a lumber business, but he only does business with penniless Southerners and is too scared to claim money from those who owe him, which makes business go very poorly.
Desperate to get money for her survival, Scarlett decides to try to marry Frank, lying about Suellen, saying she was engaged to another man. Before, Scarlett had always thought of Frank as an 'old maid' and unattractive man. Knowing that Frank was one of the few people that had some money and prospect after the war and knowing that her sister Sue Ellen would not share the money with the rest of her family if she married Frank, Scarlett acted fast to secure Frank. In 1866, Frank married her. He at first thought that Scarlett was a helpless and sweet lady who needed male protection, but after his wedding he would find out that this was not true.
Frank had started a store, and when Scarlett comes back to Atlanta, Frank mentions that he had pulled in a thousand dollars. Scarlett didn't like the way he was running it as he refused to collect the money from friends that owed him, and when he became ill, she took hold of the store. Frank is shocked by Scarletts ruthless ways of leading the mill and general not lady-like behaviour. Frank secretly started to regret this marriage as Scarlett turned out to be a completely different person who he thought her to be, along with her clearly setting the rules in their relationship, at times pretty much bullying him.
Frank wanted Scarlett to have a child, hoping it would make her unable to run the mill and become more soft in her behaviour. So, Ella Lorena Kennedy was born. Frank was very happy about his daugther and for the first time ever in their marriage, he put his foot down and forbid Scarlett to further ride to the mill every day. To his disappointment, motherhood did not make Scarlett any softer or more lady-like. Around this point, Frank joined the Ku Klux Klan.
Scarlett eventually goes off to a lumber mill without protection, despite warnings not to go. She is attacked, therefore, Frank, being a member of Ku Klux Klan and a few other men who are members as well want to avenge her. They attack the shantytown in the forest at night, and a couple of men were killed. While Ashley was shot in the shoulder, Frank was shot in the head and killed. Scarlett would later regret having made his last months in life miserable (though Rhett points it is probably her fear of punishment after death rather than really regretting that she bullied Frank so much, as she did what she had to do to secure her families survival).