Kenneth Kanipes Sr.
                               January 27, 1944  -  February 2, 2006
                                                    R.I.P.
                                    FOUNDING MEMBER OF
                               UNITED PATRIOTS OF AMERICA                   

The United Patriots deeply regrets the passing of Founding Member Kenneth Kanipes SR.

Ken was recently retired and living in Phoenix, Arizona.

          Who was Kenneth Kanipes Sr.?
Farm boy
Father
Husband
Steel Worker
Tennessee Lawman
Gun Show Vender
Truck Driver
Founding Member of the United Patriots of America

Mr. Kanipes Sr. was born in 1944, on a farm in Clinton, Tennessee, near Oak Ridge, where the atomic bomb was developed;  to a family that traced it's roots back to Revolutionary War times.  Ken would tell about a Pastor in his family in NYC that was arrested by the British for speaking out against British rule.

Mr. Kanipes is survived by his wife Shirley, a former school teacher from Pennsylvania, his Brother Burl Kanipes of Chattanooga, TN, and two sons, Kenneth Kanipes Jr. from Knoxville, TN and Russel Kanipes from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
The funeral will be in Oliver Springs, TN and Mr. Kanipes will be laid to rest in the Long Cemetery in Clinton, TN owned by the Kanipes family.

His son Russel who is handling the funeral arrangements has agreed to inscribe on his fathers headstone the following inscription.
FOUNDING MEMBER OF UNITED PATRIOTS OF AMERICA
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Ken loved this country dearly and his Patriotism was beyond reproach.

As a young man Ken worked in  steel mills in Indiana and then become a Union rep for a steel workers union. Later on he went back to Tennesse and became a police officer and eventually became Captain of all the Sheriffs in Anderson County.
As times were changing, Ken left law enforcement after twenty years, and opened up a businees selling safes for guns. All his selling was done at gun shows around the country.
In his last years Ken became a truck driver because he wanted to see the country. He eventually settled in Phoenix and was living there until his death.
He retired about a year ago.
Ken's mission was to come up to Jersey and work in the UPA office during his retirement.
He spoke often about how he used to listen to the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio in Clinton, TN. Somehow his radio picked up the games in Clinton, TN .
He very much wanted to come up here and spend time seeing NY as a tourist. It was his dream.
Ken was like a story book type character or someone you would see on the big screen like a Gary Cooper or a John Wayne. Ken spent his last years as a modern day cowboy - an over the rode  big rig driver.

I first met Ken in the spring of 2002, just after the  911 terrorist attacks from the previous fall.  He was an over the road truck driver delivering a load to our warehouse in New Jersey from California and Arizona.

The UPA was incorporated on December 30, 2001 and the web site had just been completed.  A big strapping good looking man sauntered in the warehouse door and introduced himself. Being always suspicious of my government I suspected that the they had come across my web site and Ken was a government man coming down to pick me up and drag me away for trying to stand up for my country.
We started talking about 911, since that event had just recently occurred.

Eventually I brought Ken into the office and showed him the UPA web site which had three revolutionary era drummers on the top of the web site. Ken looked at the computer screen and instantly said how do I join up. I said give me $20.00 and write your contact information on this card. His twenty was on the table before I could finish my sentence.

From that day on Ken called me twice a day every day, 7 days a week, to check up on  the UPA.

In the early days 2002-2003 activist were just starting to speak out about the immigration anarchy and a major street demonstration took place in Phoenix, AZ.. Ken was there, and he happened to be standing next to an early border activists named Dave Cheney at the demonstration.

Ken was a great Patriot and a great friend and he will be sorely missed.

Ron Bass
Founder
United Patriots of America