The name Kennedy is associated primarily with the murder of JFK. However, the history of this family, apart from the famous coup, also hides other tragedies. No wonder many believe the family is under a curse.
Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy
The eldest daughter and third child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy was born on September 18, 1918. Unfortunately, her birth turned out to be a dramatic event that marked the girl for the rest of her life. The labor operation happened so quickly that the doctor could not participate in it from the very beginning. For this reason, the nursing nurse ordered her to tighten her legs, keeping the newborn's head in the birth canal for too long. This led to fatal hypoxia.
The girl was not developing properly. At the age of two, she still had difficulty sitting, crawling and walking. Over time, she also began to show serious learning difficulties - including reading and writing. The parents tried to hide their daughter's disability from the world however, over the years it was more and more visible - especially against the background of the other eight siblings, distinguished by intelligence and physical activity.
Joseph and Rose Kennedy tried to hide Rosemary's disability from the world.
In 1938, Joseph Kennedy took over as the US ambassador to Great Britain, where he moved with his wife and children. There, in 1941, Rosemary's parents decided to subject her to a lobotomy. Unfortunately, the procedure only worsened her health. She spent the rest of her life in a nursing home, and it was only after the death of her father, who had kept her in isolation, that she had better contact with the rest of her siblings. She was the first of nine Kennedy children to die of natural causes on January 7, 2005, aged 86.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr.
The firstborn son of the Kennedys was considered the pride of his father, and he was originally supposed to take over the political baton from him. After the outbreak of World War II, a Harvard graduate volunteered as a navy pilot. Initially, he was delegated to patrol the skies over the Caribbean, but in 1943 he was sent to England, where he fought as a bomber pilot. He participated, inter alia, in the invasion of Normandy.
His service ended on August 12, 1944 during the Anvil project. It was a secret mission to destroy the German military fortifications. During the operation, Kennedy's plane disappeared from the radar as a result of an on-board TNT explosion.
Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy Cavendish
Kathleen, known as Kick, was born in February 1920 as the fourth child and second daughter of the Kennedys. She was a very cheerful and energetic girl; she loved sports. After moving to London in 1938, she and her older sister Rosemary were introduced to the royal court with other English debutants.
After the outbreak of World War II, Kick returned with her mother and other siblings to the USA, but left her heart in Great Britain. During her one-year stay overseas, met William Cavendish, the Marquis of Hartington - and it was he who attracted her to England like a magnet . She decided to join the Red Cross and eventually took up a job as a programming assistant at Hans Crescent, a London club that offered food, supplies and accommodation for officers in 1943. In May 1944, she married a chosen one, who was called to the front four weeks later. Three months later, he was shot by a sniper.
Kathleen and William's wedding
This incident and the death of her beloved brother Joseph just a month earlier had left their mark on Kick. She quit her job for the Red Cross, but chose to stay permanently in Great Britain. After the war, she got into an affair with Count Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam. Her parents disapproved of this relationship because her daughter's partner was married. Although he planned to divorce and marry Kick, he failed to do so - they both died on May 13, 1948 in a plane crash in France.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
The life of the 35th president of the United States was also marked by private suffering. In 1953, he married Jacqueline Bouvier, whom he had previously dated for two years - and they had tried exactly the same amount of time for Jackie to get pregnant for the first time. Unfortunately she had a miscarriage and a year later she gave birth to a dead daughter, whom they named Arabella.
After another 12 months, they finally had offspring. Caroline was born, and three years later John F. Junior. The son of the Kennedys took his first steps in the White House, because two months after his birth, JFK was sworn in as the president of the USA .
In August 1963, Jacqueline prematurely gave birth to a second son, Patrick. The boy died two days after birth due to respiratory failure. The event had a strong impact on both the first couple and the rest of the US citizens mourning the tragedy with the Kennedy. However, this was not the end of the misfortunes - three months later, on November 22, 1963, John was killed in an assassination attempt.
JFK in Dallas minutes before the bombing.
It was this series of unfortunate events that started the story of the Kennedy Curse. The rumors were sealed only by the death of John Junior - he died at the age of 38 in a plane crash together with his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister. Their airplane crashed on July 16, 1999 off the coast of Martha's Vineyard Island on their way to a family celebration.
Robert Fitzgerald "Bobby" Kennedy
Born as the seventh child in his family, Robert has dedicated his career to fighting for human rights. When John entered the presidency, he appointed his brother the Attorney General, which he remained until 1964. Following JKF's death, Bobby entered the political scene by becoming a New York State Senator in 1965 - and thus positioning himself for another race to the White House. Unfortunately, on June 5, 1968, he was shot after announcing his victory in the California primary election. He died the next day.
He and his wife, Ethel, had eleven children, of whom the youngest daughter, Rory, was born seven months after her father's death. Unfortunately, the younger generation was also harassed by family doom. The eldest son, Joseph Patrick, was in 1972 on a hijacked plane flying from New Delhi to Aden (fortunately all passengers were saved). Later that year, he caused a car accident in which his brother David and girlfriend Pam Kelly were seriously injured. The woman was paralyzed for the rest of her life.
In turn, the aforementioned David, at the age of 14, almost drowned in the waters of the ocean near the summer house of a family friend. His father saved him. His tragic death pushed David towards drugs. Ultimately, they led to his death at the age of 28.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy speaking through a megaphone to a crowd of African Americans and whites in front of the Justice Department
Michael - the sixth child of Ethel and Bobby - although he was active in many charities, his work was overshadowed in 1997 by a scandalous romance with a 16-year-old nanny. He broke up his marriage. On New Year's Eve of the same year, during a family trip to the mountains, Michael died as a result of a collision with a tree while skiing.
This is by no means the end of the tragedy of this branch of the family. In August 2019, Robert's granddaughter Saoirse died from a drug overdose, and in April 2020, his second granddaughter, Maeve McKean, and her son drowned in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay after a kayak tipped over.
Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy
The youngest child of Joseph and Rose was Edward Kennedy. He became famous primarily as the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in history. But not only that. Just over six months after JFK's death, Ted was involved in a plane crash in which his pilot and one of the passengers were killed. Edward suffered a severe spinal injury which he struggled with for the rest of his life.
After the brothers were murdered, the youngest in the family also began to look towards the White House. Unfortunately, these plans were thwarted by a car accident that caused in July 1969, driving off the bridge on Martha's Vineyard. The man managed to get out of the vehicle, but his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, was not so lucky.
After the brothers were murdered, the youngest in the family also began to look towards the White House.
Ted reportedly tried to save the woman by diving several times. When that didn't work, he walked back to the party they'd left earlier and asked two friends for help. The men were to do their best to save Mary, but when that was to no avail, they left the scene of the accident without informing the authorities.
They showed up only the next day - after local fishermen had notified them. One paramedic stated that the woman died of asphyxiation probably 3-4 hours after the accident . Had help come sooner, Mary might have survived. Ultimately, Kennedy pleaded guilty. He was given a two-month suspended sentence.
Edward has been married twice. From his first marriage to Joan, he had one daughter and two sons (the older of them, his namesake, had bone cancer as a child; he lost his right leg as a result of his illness). He died at the age of 77 due to a brain tumor. He was the only son of Joseph and Rose to live to an old age.
Bibliography
- E. Klein, The Kennedy Curse:Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years , St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004.
- J. Patterson, The House of Kennedy , Little, Brown and Company, 2020.
- https://www.jfklibrary.org/ (accessed:10/01/2021).