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Jean Kennedy Smith

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For the American biographer and academic, see Jean Edward Smith. For the Canadian artist and writer, see Jean Smith.
Jean Kennedy Smith
25th United States Ambassador to Ireland
In office
June 17, 1993 – September 17, 1998
Preceded byWilliam Henry Gerald FitzGerald
Succeeded byMichael J. Sullivan
Personal details
Born
Jean Ann Kennedy

(1928-02-20) February 20, 1928 (age 96)
Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseStephen Edward Smith (1956–1990, his death)
RelationsParents:
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth (née Fitzgerald) Kennedy

see also Kennedy family
ChildrenStephen Edward Smith, Jr. (born 1957)
William Kennedy Smith (born 1960)
Amanda Mary Smith (born 1965)
Kym Maria Smith (born 1972)
Alma materManhattanville College
ProfessionPolitician

Jean Kennedy Smith (born February 20, 1928) is an American diplomat, a former United States Ambassador to Ireland.

She is the eighth of nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth (née Fitzgerald) Kennedy, and the last surviving member of her generation of the Kennedy family.

Early life and family life

Born Jean Ann Kennedy in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States, she was the shyest and most-guarded of the Kennedy children. Her mother said of her youngest daughter, "She was born so late, that she only was able to enjoy the tragedies, and not the triumphs."

She attended Manhattanville College (at the time a Sacred Heart school), located in Purchase, New York, where she met and befriended two future sisters-in-law: Ethel Skakel, who married her brother Robert F. Kennedy in 1950, and Joan Bennett, who married her brother Ted in 1958.

On May 19, 1956, in a small chapel of the Roman Catholic Saint Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, New York, she married Stephen Edward Smith.

The Smiths maintained a lower profile than some other members of the extended Kennedy family. During the early 1960s, they settled in New York City. Smith gave birth to two sons, Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. (born 1957) and William Kennedy Smith (born 1960), and adopted two daughters, Amanda Mary Smith (born 1965) and Kym Maria Smith (born 1972 in Vietnam).

Smith and her husband were present at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 1968, the night Sirhan Sirhan shot and fatally wounded her brother U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy after he had won the Democratic 1968 California U.S. presidential primary.

Her husband died of cancer on August 19, 1990. The following year her son William, then a student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., was accused of rape in Florida, but was acquitted.

Ambassador to Ireland

In 1993, Smith was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, continuing a legacy of diplomacy begun by her father, who was U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom) during the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As Ambassador, she played a pivotal role in the peace process in that region for almost five years before resigning the post. As a demonstration of her ecumenical views, on at least one occasion she received communion in a cathedral of the Church of Ireland, an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion.

She was reprimanded by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher for retaliating against two foreign service officers at the Embassy of the United States in Dublin who objected to her recommendation to Washington to grant a visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, and sent in a "Dissent Channel" cable.[1] The Foreign Service Journal called the U.S. State Department's report on the matter "scathingly critical".[2]

Her management of the Embassy came under criticism by the Boston Herald in December 1996, which obtained internal State Department memos and e-mails, for putting pressure on Embassy staff to spend taxpayer money to refurbish her residence in Dublin. [3] [4]

Ambassador Smith was also the subject of an allegation of violations of Federal conflict of interest laws. The Department of Justice issued a press release on September 22, 2000 announcing that she paid $5,000 in a civil settlement to resolve the allegations.[5]

She was awarded honorary citizenship by the Government of Ireland in 1998.[6]

Philanthropy, awards and later life

In 1974, Smith founded Very Special Arts, a non-profit organization now known as VSA arts and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It promotes the artistic talents of mentally and physically challenged children and is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; she also sits on the board of that center.

Smith had an uncredited role in the film Michael Collins (1996).

In 2007, Smith received the Gold Medal Award from the Éire Society of Boston[7] for her peace efforts in Northern Ireland and for her humanitarian work with disabled children, and was mentioned in the August/September 2007 issue of Irish American magazine.

She commutes between New York City and Washington, D.C.

Her sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died on August 11, 2009. Smith did not attend Eunice's funeral on August 14, 2009, choosing to stay with their brother Ted who was ill; he died on August 25, 2009, leaving her as the last surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.[8] She attended his funeral on August 29, 2009.

See also

References

  1. ^ Engleberg, Stephen (March 8, 1996). "U.S. Says Envoy to Ireland Wrongly Punished 2 Colleagues", The New York Times. Accessed August 25, 2009.
  2. ^ Gilbert, Richard (July 1996). "Dissent in Dublin - For 2 FSOs, Cable Drew Retribution And Frustration". Foreign Service Journal. Accessed August 25, 2009.
  3. ^ Battenfeld, Joe (December 19, 1996). [1], Boston Herald. Accessed August 30, 2009.
  4. ^ Battenfeld, Joe (December 20, 1996). [2], Boston Herald. Accessed August 30, 2009.
  5. ^ Department of Justice and Former Ambassador Settle Allegations of Conflict of Interest Violation, September 22, 2000.[3]. Accessed August 28, 2009.
  6. ^ Staff writer (October 14, 1999). "Ambassador J. Kennedy Smith Is Fellow at Institute of Politics". The Harvard University Gazette. Accessed August 25, 2009.
  7. ^ Eire Society 2007 Gold Medal Recipient
  8. ^ McMullen, Troy (August 26, 2009) "The Last Kennedy — Death of Ted Kennedy Leaves One Surviving Child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy". ABC News. Accessed August 26, 2009.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Ireland
1993 – 1998 		Succeeded by
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