It is speculative to describe what any historical figure would have wanted from their legacy, but Mary Kenner gave some indication in interviews she gave toward the end of her life.

She expressed satisfaction in having invented, and a clear-eyed assessment of the barriers she had faced.

She did not appear to be bitter, though the grounds for bitterness were substantial.

She appeared to understand her own achievements clearly, without either false modesty or defensive exaggeration.

She would probably have wanted, most immediately, to see her inventions reach the market on the timelines they deserved rather than the timelines that racial discrimination imposed.

The eighteen years of waiting represented not only a personal injustice but a practical failure: products she knew were useful were not reaching the people who could have used them.