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Quote: "The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." D&C 25:12

At an early age Kendra studied piano, guitar, violin and voice. When she and her four sisters were teenagers, they composed and recorded several original songs as part of a record album. They won top honors on regional television talent shows and competitions including the Ted Mack Show and the Eugene Jelesnick Talent Showcase. They also performed in Europe and at the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane, Washington. When Kendra attended college she continued to study guitar, piano, voice and art. She taught guitar classes and lessons for several years. One of Kendra’s twin daughters, Rachel, was born medically fragile with hydrocephalus and was never able to walk, talk or eat (being fed through a tube all nine years of her life). This experience greatly influenced Kendra’s art and music. She composed a collection of songs dedicated to this life changing journey called “Expressions of Healing” and her husband, Dave, orchestrated the instrumentation. Kendra composed other songs that were included in a collection called “Expressions of Life”. Kendra’s composition, “The Homeland” has a melody that is reminiscent of Old England and even Ancient Israel. The orchestrated song was scored by her father-in-law, Gene Burton, and performed by the Wasatch Symphony at the Salt Lake Presbyterian Cathedral. She also wrote music to several poems, including one written by Candie Williams who was adopted when her parents passed away. She and her twin sister both have adopted children of their own. The song is about parents waiting to adopt a child entitled “A Special Love”. Winefred Eyring smiled and her eyes filled with tears as she listened to her poem “Come Unto Christ” sung to music written by Kendra. Winefred said she always felt that someday her poetry would be put to music and she was happy that others would hear her inspiring words through song. Jennifer Gabriel Peacock wrote lyrics in free verse and Kendra took on the challenge of writing music to words with a more complicated rhythm. Jennifer, with her powerful voice, later recorded the song, “Into His Arms”. For one Mother’s Day, Kendra’s husband, Dave, wrote words to Kendra’s music. He told his mother that he was trying to be the kind of son she hoped he would be and he entitled the song, “A Witness to Mother’s Love”. He sent a recording to her for what unknowingly became her last Mother’s Day. She passed away less than a year later. Kendra and her husband have worked together to create several songs that use specific quotations, word for word, from the scriptures. Since there is usually no poetic rhyme, this creates a unique quality in these songs. Scriptural text compositions include: “Ye Have Done It Unto Me”, “Peace Be Unto Thy Soul”, “Come Unto Me”, “The Lord Is My Shepherd”. Another poem that Kendra composed music for was written by Eileen Christensen, a mother with a handicapped son. This was sung at the State Capital to legislators and a group of over 200 people by Kendra's healthy twin daughter, Sarah, on behalf of the twin who could not speak. (Rachel passed away three weeks later). Kendra believes we are each "instruments of influence" to others around us, whether through art and music, or (like her special needs daughter) through the unspoken word.
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