 He was the son of Enoch Riley Kennedy (a North Carolina native and Methodist preacher) and Louisa Jane (Chisholm) Kennedy.He attended the county public schools and the State Normal School at Florence, but did not graduate from the latter.He studied medicine under local physician James Kyle, then attended a course of lectures at the University of Louisville in 1877–78, and again in 1879–80, graduating in 1880 with an MD.