Jump to content

Victoria Reggie Kennedy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 98.116.115.180 (talk) at 02:44, 29 August 2009 (add date to photograph caption). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Victoria Reggie Kennedy
Victoria Reggie Kennedy in March 2009.
Born
Victoria Anne Reggie[1]

(1954-02-26) February 26, 1954 (age 70)[1]
Crowley, Louisiana, United States
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Grier C. Raclin (1981—1990, divorced)
Edward "Ted" Moore Kennedy (1992—2009, his death)
ChildrenCurran Raclin
Caroline Raclin
Parent(s)Edmund M. Reggie and Doris Ann Boustany Reggie
RelativesStep-children:
Kara Kennedy Allen
Edward Moore Kennedy, Jr.
Patrick Joseph Kennedy II

see also Kennedy family

Victoria "Vicki" Reggie Kennedy (born February 26, 1954) is an American lawyer and the widow of U.S. Senator Edward "Ted" Moore Kennedy.

Early life and education

The second of six children, she was born Victoria Anne Reggie in Crowley, Louisiana to Louisiana judge and banker Edmund M. Reggie and Doris Ann Boustany Reggie, a Democratic national committeewoman.[2][3] She is of Lebanese descent, as all her grandparents were Maronites from Beirut, Lebanon, who immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Crowley.[4] The grandparents became important players in the local Roman Catholic church and their children became involved in business and politics.[4][5]

Her immediate family was wealthy because of money from her mother's family's interest in the Bunny Bread baking concern in New Orleans, Louisiana.[4][5] She was raised in a family that was constantly involved in politics and campaigns.[2] At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, her father helped deliver his state for John F. Kennedy's unsuccessful bid for the vice-presidential nomination. Over time, John Kennedy developed a close social relationship with the family.[6] Doris Reggie cast the only Louisiana delegate vote for Ted Kennedy at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.[7]

Kennedy attended parochial schools growing up and was a straight-A student.[5] She attended Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, magna cum laude.[5][8] There she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was president of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.[5]

She then received her law degree, summa cum laude in 1979 from Tulane University Law School.[8]. There she was a member of Tulane Law Review.[5] Her education at Tulane, along with twenty years of other Tulane tuition for her brothers and sisters, was paid for by scholarships awarded by a political ally of her father.[9][10]

Early career and family

After law school, she clerked for Judge Robert Arthur Sprecher at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago.[5] As an attorney, she specialized in bank law.[2]

Reggie met her first husband, Grier C. Raclin, a telecommunications attorney[4] (who later became a senior executive at Charter Communications in St. Louis, Missouri),[11] when they clerked together at the Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago. Their 1981 church wedding was in Crowley and "feted 400 guests with a week's worth of parties".

Following marriage, the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where she practiced banking and savings and loan law and restructuring and bankruptcy law for Keck, Mahin & Cate.[3][4][5] She was made partner there, and was known to be "charismatic and hard-driving" and a tough negotiator in settlement talks[4] and "as a real star" for her ability to work on complicated financial transactions.[3]

She and Grier Raclin have two children: Curran Raclin (a son, born 1982) and Caroline Raclin (a daughter, born 1985).[2] They were divorced in 1990,[2][12] and she juggled her career with being a single mother to young children.[3]

Remarriage and later career

While the Kennedy and Reggie families were friends for many years, Vicki remembers (but Senator Kennedy did not) their first meeting when Vicki was a summer intern in his Senate office's mailroom the year following her college graduation.[7] They began dating after meeting again in June 1991[13] at a party celebrating her parents' 40th wedding anniversary.[3] Ted Kennedy said of this meeting, "I had known Vicki before, but this was the first time I think I really saw her."[7] The relationship became serious in September 1991.[7] They were engaged in March 1992, and married July 3, 1992, in a civil ceremony at his home in McLean, Virginia. His political career had suffered from a long period of womanizing, drinking, and adverse publicity, and she is credited with stabilizing his personal life and helping him resume a productive career in the Senate.[3][6] In turn, Kennedy was devoted towards her two children.[3][6]

(Upon the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on May 19, 1994, Vicki Kennedy became one of only four living spouses – along with Sargent Shriver, Joan Bennett Kennedy, and Ethel Skakel Kennedy – of the children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.)

Her importance in her husband's political career came to light in his 1994 senatorial re-election campaign against Mitt Romney, when she was credited by The New York Times with "giving him a political advantage in a difficult contest".[2] She organized a Boston, Massachusetts, reception where 1,200 influential New England women met five of Kennedy's Senate colleagues.[4] In both[clarification needed] campaigns and his senatorial work, she became his principal assistant and closest political advisor.[6] By 1997, she had stopped practicing law.[6] She helped the greater Kennedy family hold together following the 1999 plane crash death of John F. Kennedy, Jr.[14]

She is president and co-founder of Common Sense about Kids and Guns, an advocacy group begun in 1999 which seeks to reduce gun deaths and injuries to children in the U.S. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and served on the board of Stop Handgun Violence in Boston.[8]

Following her husband's May 2008 diagnosis of brain cancer, she became his primary caregiver, dealing with the larger Kennedy family and political connections and helping him decide on treatment options.[6] Reports indicated that he expressed the wish that his wife would succeed him in office,[6][14] and speculation towards that possibility continued further because of the senator's death.[15] Under Massachusetts state law, vacant Senate seats can only be filled by a special election,[16] and she would have to campaign for the office.[14] However, news reports following her husband's death indicated that she had expressed no interest in assuming her husband's Senate seat, even temporarily.[citation needed]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Kennedy Family Tree". American Experience. PBS. 2003-10-02. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rimer, Sarah (1994-09-24). "Kennedy's Wife Is Giving Him a Political Advantage in a Difficult Contest". The New York Times. This may be her first campaign...but in some ways Vicki Kennedy, who was divorced from her first husband in 1990 and is the mother of two children -- Curran, 11, and Caroline, 9 -- has trained for this role. She is a lawyer who specialized in banking -- she is not now practicing. And she was raised ...as a daughter of a retired judge and a Democratic national committeewoman. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Kahn, Joseph P. (2009-02-19). "An untidy private life, then a turn to stability". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-02-20. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Hersh, Burton (1997). The Shadow President: Ted Kennedy in Opposition. Steerforth Press. pp. 105–109. ISBN 1-883642-30-2.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Gliatto, Tom (1992-03-30). "Time to Marry? Right, Said Ted". People. Retrieved 2009-02-20. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Romano, Lois (2008-06-07). "Senator_s_Wife_Is_His_First_Mate__Adviser_and_Caregiver Senator's Wife Is His First Mate, Adviser and Caregiver". The Washington Post via The Ledger. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ a b c d Adam Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography. Wm. Morrow & Company, 1999. ISBN 0-688-14285-0. pp. 492–493.
  8. ^ a b c "Common Sense about Kids and Guns: Kennedy Bio". Mrs. Kennedy received her undergraduate degree, a B.A. magna cum laude, from Newcomb College of Tulane University, in New Orleans, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and other honor societies and was involved in student government. She was graduated summa cum laude from the Tulane Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Tulane Law Review and was inducted in the Order of the Coif. In May 1998, Mrs. Kennedy received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Suffolk University Law School in Boston for her service to her community. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 404 (help)
  9. ^ Tyler, Bridges (1995-10-15), "Records reveal more perks to the powerful; The Tulane Scholarship Scandal Part II", The Times-Picayune
  10. ^ "Louisiana Scholarships Have Political Pedigree". The New York Times. 1995-10-17. Retrieved 2008-10-28. Victoria Reggie, who married Mr. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, in 1992, attended Tulane University's Newcomb College and Tulane Law School for free, courtesy of a state legislator who grew up with her father, Edmund Reggie, The Times-Picayune reported. Under programs dating from the 1880's, each state legislator can award one scholarship a year, and the Mayor of New Orleans can award five. In all, the Reggie children got twenty-seven years' worth of free tuition at Tulane, the newspaper reported. A nephew of Edmund Reggie got seven years of tuition. The tuition waivers were made by State Representative John N. John, who gave all the scholarships at his disposal to Mr. Reggie's family. Mr. John died in 1983. {{cite news}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 412 (help)
  11. ^ "Grier C. Raclin, J.D. Profile, Forbes.com". Forbes. Retrieved 2008-10-28. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Laura Blumenfeld, "Victoria Reggie, Ready for Teddy; Her Friends and Family Agree. She's Perfect for Him", The Washington Post, March 20, 1992, page b.01.
  13. ^ Charles Trueheart, "Kennedy Announces Plans to Wed Washington Lawyer", The Washington Post, Marcy 15, 1992, page A.05
  14. ^ a b c Bishop, Ian (2008-05-22). "Ted Kennedy: I'd like wife to take seat". Daily News. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ Fee, Gayle and Raposa, Laura (2009-02-20). "Is Vicki Kennedy ready to succeed?". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2009-02-20. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Belluck, Pam (June 25, 2004). "Massachusetts Politicians Fight Over a Kerry Victory" The New York Times. Accessed August 27, 2009.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Victoria_Reggie_Kennedy&oldid=310651167"