Kennedy family

Kennedy
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, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, et al.
Connected families	Auchincloss family, Bouvier family, Fitzgerald family, Onassis family, Radziwiłł family, Schwarzenegger family, Shriver family, et al.
Estate(s)	Kennedy Compound, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts

The Kennedy family is a family descending from the marriage of the Irish-Americans Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, and 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, glamour, 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 undergone (then, before, and since) a series of deaths and other reverses that could not be fully remedied by wealth, 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. Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.); a fatal skiing accident (Michael LeMoyne Kennedy); a failed prefrontal lobotomy on Rosemary Kennedy, carried out in the hope of calming the young woman's violent outbursts but resulting in more severe mental retardation; and at least three sets of allegations against individual family members and their relatives by marriage, including a murder conviction (Michael Skakel) and a controversial fatal single-car crash (Chappaquiddick incident).

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

Together Rose and Joe Sr. had nine children:

• Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (1915–1944)
  • He died 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, though 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 President of the United States. He was assassinated during a motorcade in Dallas, TX. The events surrounding his death remain controversial. He married New York socialite Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and had four children, one of whom was stillborn, one died soon after birth, and two survived to adulthood.
• Rosemary Kennedy (1918–2005)
  • Likely dyslexic and considered to be slightly brain-damaged from birth, Rose Marie Kennedy (her christening name) was rendered incapable of intelligible speech or caring for herself by a lobotomy, a popular neurosurgical technique of the time, requested by her father, Joe Sr., 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, the son and heir to the Duke of Devonshire, over her mother's strenuous religious objections. After being widowed when her husband, the Marquess of Hartington, was killed in action in World War II, she was killed in a plane crash in France with her lover, the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam.
• Eunice Mary Kennedy (1921–2009)
  • She is best known as the 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 Rat Pack actor Peter Lawford (1923–1984) and had four children.
• Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968)
  • He was U.S. attorney general in his brother's administration, later served as senator from New York, and was assassinated while running for president in June 1968. He married Ethel Skakel and had 11 children.
• Jean Ann Kennedy (born 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 senator from Massachusetts from 1962 to 2009. Twice married, he had three children from his first marriage and two stepchildren from his second. On May 20, 2008, it was announced that he had a malignant brain tumor. In the next year, brain cancer severely limited his Senate appearances. He died on August 25, 2009.

Fourth generation

• Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. had no children.

• John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis 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 a plane crash on July 16, 1999. Married Carolyn Bessette, who died in the same crash.
  4. Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (1963–1963) — was born prematurely and died from infant respiratory-distress syndrome two days after his birth.

• Rosemary Kennedy had no children.

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

• Eunice Kennedy and Sargent Shriver 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 children.
  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 Special Olympics. Married Linda S. Potter, has five children.
  4. Mark Kennedy Shriver (b. 1964) — a 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 — a professional actor. Divorced from Jeannie Olson, has three children.
  2. Sydney Maleia Lawford — married (James) Peter McKevley, has four children.
  3. Victoria Francis Lawford — married Robert Pender, has three children.
  4. Robin Elizabeth Lawford

• Robert Francis Kennedy and Ethel Skakel had eleven children:
  1. Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend — former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Maryland. Married David Lee Townsend, has four children.
  2. Joseph Patrick Kennedy II — 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. — 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 — died of a drug overdose on April 25, 1984.
  5. Mary Courtney Kennedy — divorced from Jeffrey Robert Ruhe and separated from Paul Michael Hill, has one child.
  6. Michael LeMoyne Kennedy — 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 — divorced from Andrew Cuomo, has three children.
  8. Christopher George Kennedy — the president of Merchandise Mart commercial properties based in Chicago, Illinois; considered a likely contender for the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 2010.. Married Sheila Sinclair Berner, has four children.
  9. Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy — an author and lawyer. Married Victoria Anne Stauss, has three children.
  10. Douglas Harriman Kennedy — a journalist. Married Mary Elizabeth Stark, has three children.
  11. Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy — an award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer. Married Mark Bailey, has two children.

• Jean Ann Kennedy and Stephen Edward Smith had four children:
  1. Stephen Edward Smith, Jr.
  2. William Kennedy Smith — 1991 rape acquittal, a physician and activist against land mines.
  3. Amanda Mary Smith — married (Harmon) Carter Hood, has two children.
  4. Kym Maria Smith — divorced from Alfie Tucker.

• Edward Moore Kennedy and Virginia Joan Bennett had three children:
  1. Kara Anne Kennedy — married Michael Allen, has two children.
  2. Edward Moore Kennedy, Jr. — 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 — U.S. Representative from Rhode Island.

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 Kennedy (1858–1929)
3. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969)
4. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. (1960–1999)
5. Joseph Patrick Kennedy II (born 1952)

The heir apparent is Matthew Rauch Kennedy (born 1980)

See also

• Irish nobility
• Chief of the Name
• Irish royal families
• Tanistry

External links

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