John F. Kennedy Jr.

For Australian footballer John Kennedy Jr., see John Kennedy, Jr. (footballer).

"John-John" redirects here. For people named John John, see John John.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.
John F. Kennedy Jr. greets invited guests at the HBO and Imagine Entertainment premiere held at Kennedy Space Center
Born	John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (1960-11-25)November 25, 1960 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	July 19, 1999(1999-07-19) (aged 38) Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard
Alma mater	Brown University NYU School of Law
Occupation(s)	lawyer and journalist
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Carolyn Jeanne Bessette (1996–1999)
Children	none
Parent(s)	John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929–May 19, 1994)

John F. Kennedy, Jr. with his father, John F. Kennedy, at the White House in 1963.

Template:FixHTML John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, Jr., JFK Jr., John Jr., John Kennedy or John-John, was a journalist, lawyer, pilot, and socialite. He was the first son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, and the younger brother of Caroline Kennedy and the older brother of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. Known as the "American Son" Kennedy was one of the few presidential children to actually be raised in the White House. He was killed in a plane crash along with his wife and sister-in-law in mid-1999.

Early life and education

Born at Georgetown University Hospital sixteen days after his father was elected to the presidency, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was in the public spotlight from his father's inauguration as President of the United States in early 1961 until his death in mid-1999. For most of the first three years of his life he lived in the White House. His nickname "John-John" came from a reporter mishearing JFK calling him ("John" spoken twice in quick succession). Though he was often referred to publicly as "John-John", members of his family themselves did not use the nickname.

His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and three days later, on his third birthday, the funeral procession was held. In a moment that became an emotional and iconic image of the 1960s, young JFK, Jr. stepped forward and rendered a final salute as the flag-draped casket was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral. Following his father's assassination, he grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and in 1968, his mother married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, whom she had met in the early 1960s. Their marriage lasted eight years until Onassis' death in 1975, when John, Jr. was fourteen years old.

Generally considered exceptionally handsome and athletic, "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1988 at the age of 27. He is the only person so named who was not a working actor and is the only one who is now deceased.

Kennedy attended the Collegiate School in New York City for the third through tenth grades, and later graduated from Phillips Academy (also known as Andover). Foregoing his family legacy of attending Harvard University, Kennedy opted to attend another Ivy League school, and graduated from Brown University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in History. While at Brown, Kennedy was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

After Brown, he took a working break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he met Mother Teresa. He also worked with some of the Kennedy special interest projects, including the East Harlem School at Exodus House and Reaching Up. From 1984-1986 he worked for the New York City Office of Business Development. He served as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986. He also did a bit of acting during that time, which had been one of his passions, having appeared in many plays while at Brown.

In 1989, he earned a J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law. He failed the New York bar exam twice before passing on the third try. According to Robert Littell's book after the second failing he drove his GMC Typhoon to a motel in Lake George and spent the weekend drinking and listening to self help tapes. He hired a tutor and arranged for special accommodation for his third try, wherein he took the examination alone (as the sole examinee) in a private room, accompanied by a proctor and looser time restrictions.

Public career

After the end of his hobo career he set up Random Ventures. In 1995, he founded George, a glossy politics-as-lifestyle monthly which sometimes took editorial aim even at members of his own family. He controlled 1 per cent of the company's shares. After Kennedy's death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines his partners in George and continued for over a year. With falling advertising sales, the magazine folded in early 2001. Before Kennedy was killed in a plane crash, however, he had conceded that he "might have to wind it up by the end of the year" When he died the magazine had been in negotiations. His backers at Hachette had threatened to pull out and he was having trouble raising funding for the magazine. He had planned to turn George into an internet project and was set to have a meeting in Hyannis Port the night he died.

Personal life

Through the late 1980s until his death, Kennedy was an often-seen and much-photographed personality in Manhattan. He lived at 309 West Eighty-Sixth Street (between Brown and NYU Law), a hotel apartment when he attended NYU and later famously at 20-26 N. Moore Street Apartment 9E in Tribeca. He could usually be seen around Manhattan riding his bike (his bikes were constantly stolen so he had to get a new one every few months) and was famous for wearing his wallet clipped to a chain on his belt (he would absentmindedly lose it quite often).

His ex-girlfriends include Jennifer Christian (his high school sweetheart at Andover), Sally Munro (his girlfriend at Brown, they dated for 6 years), Julie Baker (a model he dated in the late '80s on and off for a few years), Christina Haag (a Brown alumna and actress he'd had a crush on while there, they started dating in 1985 for a few years), Ashley Richardson (a model and actress), Sarah Jessica Parker (they dated in 1988), Daryl Hannah (they dated on and off from 1989-1994 and lived together briefly at Hannah's Upper West Side apartment) and had a brief fling with Madonna during an-off point in his relationship with Hannah. Soon after his mother's death he met Carolyn Jeanne Bessette in late 1994. She had apparently resisted John's proposal for a year before finally accepting. When speaking of her to a friend, Kennedy was quoted as saying "she's the best shot I got" and they married on September 21, 1996 on Cumberland Island in Georgia. His sister Caroline acted as the matron of honor and his cousin Anthony Stanislas Radziwill acted as best man.

Death

On July 16, Kennedy was killed along with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette when the aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. He was flying a Piper Saratoga II HP from Essex County Airport in New Jersey to Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy and his wife were travelling together to the wedding of his cousin Rory in Hyannis, Massachusetts, while Lauren was to have been dropped off at Martha's Vineyard en route.

Causes

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the crash was: "The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation.". Although the weather was officially listed as VFR (Visual Flight Rules), allowing Kennedy to fly that night despite his lack of an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) rating, the visibility was poor in Essex County, New Jersey, and at least one pilot interviewed by the NTSB in the subsequent crash investigation canceled his flight to Martha's Vineyard that night. "Based only on the current weather conditions at CDW, the fact that I could not get my friends to come with me, and the fact that I would not have to spend money on a hotel room in Martha's Vineyard, I made the decision to fly my airplane to Martha's Vineyard on Saturday." The conditions near the crash site were "Clear skies at or below 12,000 feet; visibility 10 miles".

Memorial tributes and services

During a public memorial service on July 23, Kennedy's paternal uncle, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, stated, "We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But, like his father, he had every gift but length of years." U.S. President Bill Clinton attended the memorial service and ordered that the flag at the White House must be lowered to half-staff to honor JFK, Jr.

At President Clinton's orders, warships of the United States Navy assisted in the search for the downed plane. With the permission of Secretary of Defense William Cohen, a public memorial service for the three victims was held aboard the Navy ship USS Briscoe. The cremated remains of Kennedy, his wife and sister-in-law were later scattered from the ship off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

Wrongful-death lawsuit

A wrongful death lawsuit brought by the Bessette and Freeman families against the Kennedy estate concluded with an undisclosed out of court settlement. The settlement avoided the publicity of a public trial. The A&E Biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., narrated by Jack Peterson, quoted the settlement amount as $50 million.

See also

• Kennedy Curse
• Kennedy family
• John F. Kennedy assassination
• Robert F. Kennedy assassination
• Sensory illusions in aviation
• Spatial disorientation
• Bárány chair
• The Day the Music Died, and Roger Peterson (pilot)
• Flash Airlines Flight 604
• Air India Flight 855

External links

• John F. Kennedy Jr. at IMDb
• National Transportation Safety Board investigation final report
• Web of conspiracy surrounds JFK Jr.'s death
• JFK Jr's political donations
• CNN.com In-depth coverage of JFK Jr's death
• Kennedy's body, airplane wreckage found
• John F. Kennedy, Jr. at the Notable Names Database
• Regarding JFK Jr.'s burial at sea
• JFK II & The Assassination of JFK, Jr.
• If William Shakespeare was still alive, we all know what he would call this tragedy: Unfortunate Son
• John F. Kennedy Jr. at Find a Grave

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