Kennedy family

Kennedy family crest
File:Kennedy Arms.png Armorial bearings granted by the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland to the descendants of Patrick Kennedy on Saint Patrick's Day 1961.
Current region	New England, United States
Place of origin	United States
Members	Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. John F. Kennedy Robert F. Kennedy Edward M. Kennedy
Connected families	Auchincloss Bouvier Cavendish Fitzgerald Murphy Onassis Radziwiłł Schwarzenegger Shriver Skakel Smith et al.
Estate(s)	Kennedy Compound, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, United States

For other uses, see Kennedy

In the United States, the phrase Kennedy family commonly refers to the family descending from the marriage of the Irish-Americans Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald that is prominent in American politics and government. Their political involvement has revolved around the Democratic Party. Harvard University educations have been common among them, and they have contributed heavily to that university's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The wealth, glamor and photogenic quality of the family members, as well as their extensive and continuing commitment to public service, has elevated them to iconic status over the past half-century.

With the 1960 election of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, he and his two then-surviving brothers, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, all held prominent positions in the federal government, and received intensive publicity, often emphasizing their youth (relative to comparably influential politicians), allure, education and collective future in politics.

The family has suffered a series of tragedies, sometimes called "the Kennedy curse"; it has included:

• the John F. Kennedy assassination
• the Robert F. Kennedy assassination
• four aircraft crashes (Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Kathleen Kennedy, Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.)
• a fatal skiing accident (Michael LeMoyne Kennedy)
• a fatal drug overdose (David Anthony Kennedy)
• a failed prefrontal lobotomy on Rose Marie Kennedy, carried out in the hope of calming the young woman's violent outbursts but resulting in severe mental retardation

It has also included at least two sets of allegations against individual family members and their relatives by marriage, including:

• a controversial fatal single-car crash (Chappaquiddick incident)
• a charge of rape (William Kennedy Smith).

Most recently, U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother of the Kennedy family, died on August 25, 2009, at age 77, after battling brain cancer. He is the only male offspring of Joseph & Rose Kennedy to die of natural causes.

Family tree

See also: List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Kennedy family political line

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First generation

The family patriarch was Patrick J. Kennedy (1858–1929), a first-generation American who married Mary Augusta Hickey. He was a politician involved in the local Democratic Party.

Second generation

In 1914, their son, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969) married Rose Fitzgerald (1890–1995), the daughter of Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald. Joe Sr. served as the first Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom in the years leading up to World War II.

Third generation

The Irish Catholic political dynasty, John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy, July 1960.

Together Rose and Joe Sr. had nine children:

• Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (1915–1944)
  • He died during World War II when taking part in Operation Aphrodite as a pilot of a modified B-24 Liberator drone bomber which accidentally exploded and crashed over Blyth Estuary near Suffolk, England. For this act, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. He was single at the time of his death and had no children, although he had been romantically linked to Edith Bouvier Beale, a cousin of his future sister-in-law Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, as well as Katharine Mortimer. (The latter reportedly rebuffed any more-serious involvement with Joe Jr., claiming that his family was too active for her to contemplate marrying into.)
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963)
  • Sometimes referred to as "Jack" or "JFK", he was a U.S. Representative, a U.S. Senator and the 35th U.S. President. He married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and had four children, one of whom was stillborn, one died soon after birth, and two survived to adulthood. He was assassinated during a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. The events surrounding his death remain controversial.
• Rose Marie Kennedy (1918–2005)
  • Known as "Rosemary" or "Rosie", she was dyslexic and considered to be slightly brain-damaged from birth. She was rendered incapable of intelligible speech or caring for herself by a prefrontal lobotomy, a popular neurosurgical technique of the time, requested by her father, that was intended to cure her increasing mood swings and make her more manageable. The operation instead reduced her to an infantile state. She lived in a residential-care facility in Wisconsin until her death on January 7, 2005.
• Kathleen Agnes Kennedy (1920–1948)
  • Known as Kick, she married a Protestant, William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington — the son and heir to the Duke of Devonshire — over her mother's strenuous religious objections. After being widowed when her husband was killed in action in World War II, she was killed in an airplane crash in France with her lover, Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam.
• Eunice Mary Kennedy (1921–2009)
  • She was a co-founder of the Special Olympics, an organization she began in honor of her sister Rosemary. She married Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., later a 1972 vice-presidential candidate, and they had five children. She died on August 11, 2009.
• Patricia Kennedy (1924–2006)
  • She married actor Peter Lawford (1923–1984) and they had four children.
• Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968)
  • Known as "Robbie" or "Bobby", he was U.S. Attorney General in his brother John's administration and later served as U.S. Senator from New York. He married Ethel Skakel and had eleven children. He was assassinated in Los Angeles, California, while running for president in June 1968.
• Jean Ann Kennedy (b. 1928)
  • She married Stephen Edward Smith (1927–1990) and had two sons and adopted two daughters. She later served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.
• Edward Moore Kennedy (1932–2009)
  • Known as "Teddy" or "Ted", he served as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009. He married Virginia Joan Bennett and they had three children. Some years after their divorce, he married Victoria Anne Reggie and had two stepchildren from this marriage. On May 20, 2008, it was announced that he had a malignant brain tumor. In the next year, brain cancer severely limited his U.S. Senate appearances. He died on August 25, 2009.

Third generation in-laws

• Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929–1994), wife of John
• William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington (1917–1944), husband of Kathleen
• Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. (b. 1915), husband of Eunice
• Peter Lawford (1923–1984), former husband of Patricia
• Ethel Skakel (b. 1928), wife of Robert
• Stephen Edward Smith, Sr (1927–1990), husband of Jean
• Virginia Joan Bennett (b. 1936), first wife of Edward
• Victoria Anne Reggie (b. 1954), second wife of Edward

Fourth generation

• Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. neither married nor had children.

• John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier had four children:
  1. Arabella Kennedy (1956) — stillborn.
  2. Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (b. 1957) — a lawyer, a co-founder of the Profile in Courage Award, the president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre. Married Edwin Schlossberg; has three children.
  3. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (1960–1999) — a lawyer and the publisher of George magazine, who was killed in an airplane crash on July 16, 1999. Married Carolyn Bessette, who died in the same crash. They had no children.
  4. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (1963–1963) — was born prematurely and died from infant respiratory-distress syndrome two days after his birth.

• Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy neither married nor had children.

• Kathleen Agnes Kennedy and William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington had no children.

• Eunice Mary Kennedy and Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. had five children:
  1. Robert Sargent Shriver III (b. 1954) — an attorney and the president of RSS Inc., a Beverly Hills, California, music, film and philanthropic company; a Santa Monica, California, city councilman. Married Malissa Ferzuzzi; has two daughters.
  2. Maria Owings Shriver (b. 1955) — a former television news anchor; First Lady of California as wife of Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; has four children.
  3. Timothy Perry Shriver (b. 1959) — the chairman of the Special Olympics. Married Linda S. Potter; has five children.
  4. Mark Kennedy Shriver (b. 1964) — a former Delegate in the Maryland General Assembly. Married Jeannie Ripp; has three children.
  5. Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (b. 1965) — an activist for mental retardation and founded Best Buddies International. Married Alina Mojica; has five children.

• Patricia Kennedy and Peter Lawford had four children:
  1. Christopher Kennedy Lawford (b. 1955) — a professional actor. Divorced from Jeannie Olson; has three children.
  2. Sydney Maleia Kennedy Lawford (b. 1956) — married (James) Peter McKevley; has four sons.
  3. Victoria Francis Lawford (b. 1958) — married Robert Pender; has three daughters.
  4. Robin Elizabeth Lawford (b. 1961)

• Robert Francis Kennedy and Ethel Skakel had eleven children:
  1. Kathleen Hartington Kennedy (b. 1951) — former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Maryland. Married David Lee Townsend; has four daughters.
  2. Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (b. 1952) — former U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. Divorced from Sheila Rauch; two sons. Married to Anne Elizabeth ("Beth") Kelly; no children.
  3. Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. (b. 1954) — an environmentalist and political commentator, attorney and law professor at Pace University School of Law; best known for his many successful litigations to prevent water pollution, primarily in the New York area. Divorced from Emily Ruth Black; two children. Married Mary Richardson; four children.
  4. David Anthony Kennedy (1955–1984) — died of a drug overdose on April 25, 1984. He neither married nor had children.
  5. Mary Courtney Kennedy (b. 1956) — divorced from Jeffrey Robert Ruhe. Separated from Paul Michael Hill; has one daughter.
  6. Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (1958–1997) — was the head of his brother Joseph's non-profit organization. Died in a skiing accident on December 31, 1997. Separated (before death) from Victoria Gifford, a daughter of Frank Gifford; had three children.
  7. Mary Kerry Kennedy (b. 1959) — divorced from Andrew Cuomo; has three daughters.
  8. Christopher George Kennedy (b. 1963) — the president of Merchandise Mart commercial properties based in Chicago, Illinois. Married Sheila Sinclair Berner; has four children.
  9. Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (b. 1965) — an author and lawyer. Married Victoria Anne Stauss, has three children.
  10. Douglas Harriman Kennedy (b. 1967) — a journalist. Married Mary Elizabeth Stark; has three daughters.
  11. Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy (b. 1968) — an award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer. Married Mark Bailey; has three children.

• Jean Ann Kennedy and Stephen Edward Smith, Sr. had four children:
  1. Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. (b. 1957)
  2. William Kennedy Smith (b. 1960) — 1991 rape acquittal, a physician and activist against land mines. He has neither married nor had children.
  3. Amanda Mary Smith (b. 1965) — adopted. Married (Harmon) Carter Hood; has two children.
  4. Kym Maria Smith (b. 1972) — adopted. Divorced from Alfie Tucker.

• Edward "Ted" Moore Kennedy (1932–2009) and Virginia Joan Bennett had three children:
  1. Kara Anne Kennedy (b. 1960) — married Michael Allen; has two children.
  2. Edward Moore Kennedy, Jr. (b. 1961) — a co-founder and the president of the Marwood Group, a Wall Street investment firm. Married Katharine Anne Gershman; has two children.
  3. Patrick Joseph Kennedy II (b. 1967) — U.S. Representative from Rhode Island. He has neither married nor had children.

(Edward "Ted" Moore Kennedy had two stepchildren from his marriage to Victoria Anne Reggie — Curran Raclin (b. 1982) and Caroline Raclin (b. 1985).

Armorial bearings

On Saint Patrick’s Day 1961, the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland granted armorial bearings to the descendants of Patrick Kennedy. According to the rules of heraldic inheritance (see primogeniture) the armiger, or heraldic "head of the family", has been:

1. Patrick Kennedy (1823–1858)
2. Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy (1858–1929)
3. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969)
4. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (1960–1999)
5. Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (b. 1952)

The heir apparent is Matthew Rauch Kennedy (b. 1980).

See also

• Irish nobility
• Tanistry

External links

• "The Kennedys: A Family Tree", St. Petersburg Times Online
• Interactive Kennedy Family Tree, Family Tree Online, a project from GiGaSoft Software GmbH
• Kennedy Family Tree, New York Times
• Kennedy Family Tree, The American Experience (Public Broadcasting Service (PBS))
• Kennedy Family Tree, Ancestry.com
• Kennedy Family, The Political Graveyard
• kennedy-web.com (unknown host)