John F. Fitzgerald

John F. Fitzgerald
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th district
In office 1895–1901
Preceded by	Joseph H. O'Neil
Succeeded by	Joseph A. Conry
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 10th district
In office March 4, 1919 – October 23, 1919
Preceded by	Peter Tague
Succeeded by	Peter Tague
Mayor of Boston
In office 1906–1908
Preceded by	Daniel A. Whelton
Succeeded by	George A. Hibbard
In office 1910–1914
Preceded by	George A. Hibbard
Succeeded by	James M. Curley
Member of the Massachusetts Senate from the 3rd Suffolk district
In office 1892–1894
Boston Common Council Ward 6
In office 1891–1892
Personal details
Born	John Francis Fitzgerald February 11, 1863(1863-02-11) Boston, Massachusetts
Died	October 2, 1950(1950-10-02) (aged 87) Boston, Massachusetts
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Josephine Hannon
Children	Rose, Mary, Thomas, John, Eunice and Frederick
Alma mater	Boston Latin School
Religion	Roman Catholic

John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (February 11, 1863 – October 2, 1950) was an American politician and the maternal grandfather of three prominent United States politicians—President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (his namesake) and Senators Robert Francis Kennedy and Edward Moore Kennedy.

Early life and family

Fitzgerald was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Irish immigrants, Thomas Fitzgerald of County Limerick and Rosanna Cox of County Cavan. He was the fourth of twelve children; of his siblings, both sisters died in infancy, as did his eldest brother. Joseph, the ninth brother, had severe brain damage from malaria and barely functioned. Only three survived in good health and after John's mother died when he was sixteen, his father wished for him to become a doctor to help prevent future tragedies of the sort that had marred the Fitzgerald family.

Accordingly, after being educated at Boston Latin School and Boston College, he enrolled at Harvard Medical School for one year, but withdrew following the death of his father in 1885. Fitzgerald later became a clerk at the Customs House in Boston and was active in the local Democratic Party.

Fitzgerald was a member of the Royal Rooters, an early supporters' club for Boston's baseball teams, particularly its American League team, the modern Boston Red Sox. At one point, he was the group's chairman, and threw out the ceremonial opening pitch in Fenway Park's inaugural game, as well as in the 1912 World Series later that year.

Marriage

On September 18, 1889, Fitzgerald married Mary Josephine Hannon, his second cousin.

Children

Name	Birth	Death	Age	Notes
Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald	July 22, 1890	January 22, 1995	104 years	Married on October 7, 1914, to Joseph P. Kennedy; had issue.
Mary Agnes Fitzgerald	November 1, 1892	September 17, 1936	43 years	Married on April 29, 1929, to Joseph F. Gargan; had three children: Joseph Gargan and two younger daughters.
Thomas Acton Fitzgerald	April 19, 1895	September 1968	73 years	Married on September 7, 1921, to Marion D. Reardon (died February 7, 1925); had issue. Married again on October 11, 1930, to Margaret Bernice Fitzpatrick; had issue.
John Francis Fitzgerald Jr	December 7, 1897	April 1979	81 years	Married on April 28, 1928, to Catherine O'Hearn; had issue.
Eunice Fitzgerald	January 26, 1900	September 25, 1923	23 years
Frederick Hannon Fitzgerald	December 3, 1904	February 1935	30 years	Married on October 26, 1929, to Rosalind Miller.

Political life

Fitzgerald was elected to Boston's Common Council in 1891. In 1892, he became a member of the Massachusetts Senate, and in 1894, he was elected to Congress for the 9th district, serving from 1895 to 1901. In 1906, Fitzgerald was elected Mayor of Boston, becoming the first American-born Irish-Catholic to be elected to that office. Fitzgerald served as mayor of Boston from 1906 to 1908, was defeated for re-election, but returned to the office again from 1910 to 1914.

Of his stylish manner, Robert Dallek wrote: "He was a natural politician—a charming, impish, affable lover of people... . His warmth of character earned him yet another nickname, "Honey Fitz," and he gained a reputation as the only politician who could sing "Sweet Adeline" sober and get away with it. A pixie-like character with florid face, bright eyes, and sandy hair, he was a showman who could have had a career in vaudeville. But politics, with all the brokering that went into arranging alliances and the hoopla that went into campaigning, was his calling. A verse of the day ran: 'Honey Fitz can talk you blind / on any subject you can find / Fish and fishing, motor boats / Railroads, streetcars, getting votes.' His gift of gab became known as Fitzblarney, and his followers as "dearos," a shortened version of his description of his district as 'the dear old North End.'"

Early in his first term as Boston's mayor, Fitzgerald formulated a plan to revitalize the commercial importance of the city. Using the slogan "A bigger, busier and better Boston", Fitzgerald was able to persuade business and the Massachusetts legislature to invest $9,000,000 for improvements to the port by 1912. Within a year, the investments began to pay off in the form of new port traffic to and from Europe.

The "Bigger, Busier and Better Boston" campaign, 1907.

He was for years the most prominent political figure in the city of Boston, where Patrick J. Kennedy was a more behind-the-scenes Democratic Party figure. P. J. Kennedy opposed Fitzgerald when the latter first ran for mayor, but they later became allies. In 1914, these two powerful political families (Kennedy and Fitzgerald) were united when Patrick Kennedy's only son Joe married Fitzgerald's eldest daughter Rose.

From March 4, 1919, to October 23, 1919, he again served in Congress, now for the 10th district, until Peter F. Tague successfully contested the election. Fitzgerald was an unsuccessful candidate for the offices of Senator in 1916 and Governor in 1922. His opponent for the Senate was Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. In his later years, Fitzgerald focused on his business interests and on honing the political instincts of his daughter Rose's promising sons. In 1946, when John F. Kennedy decided to run for Congress, 83-year-old "Honey Fitz" helped him plan his campaign strategy. At the victory celebration, Fitzgerald danced an Irish jig, sang "Sweet Adeline," and predicted that his grandson would someday occupy the White House. Shortly after his election to the presidency, John F. Kennedy renamed the presidential yacht the Honey Fitz in honor of his maternal grandfather.

On October 2, 1950, Fitzgerald died in Boston at the age of eighty-seven. His funeral was one of the largest in the city's history. President Harry S. Truman sent his sympathies and Fitzgerald's pallbearers included U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., U.S. Senator Leverett Saltonstall (the grandson of the man who had given "Honey Fitz" his first job), U.S. Speaker of the House John McCormack, Massachusetts Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, and former Boston Mayor and Massachusetts Governor James Michael Curley. As "Honey Fitz" was carried to his final rest from Holy Cross Cathedral to St. Joseph's Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a crowd of thousands who had gathered along the streets sang "Sweet Adeline". Interestingly, in 1952, Fitzgerald's grandson and namesake John F. Kennedy defeated Lodge's grandson and namesake Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. for the same seat. Furthermore, in 1960, Lodge, Jr. was the unsuccessful U.S. Vice-Presidential candidate on the Republican ticket, which lost to Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

The official name for the Central Artery highway in Boston was The John F. Fitzgerald Expressway, until it was torn down in the 1990s as part of Boston's "Big Dig" project which eliminated the Central Artery and replaced it with a tunnel. The resulting greenway above the tunnel where the expressway had been was named for Fitzgerald's daughter as the "Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway".

External links

• John F. Fitzgerald at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• John F. Fitzgerald at Find a Grave

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Joseph H. O'Neil	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th congressional district 1895–1901	Succeeded by Joseph A. Conry
Preceded by Peter F. Tague	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 10th congressional district March 14, 1919 – October 23, 1919	Succeeded by Peter F. Tague
Political offices
Preceded by Daniel A. Whelton	Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts 1906–1908	Succeeded by George A. Hibbard
Preceded by George A. Hibbard	Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts 1910–1914	Succeeded by James Michael Curley