Joan B. Kennedy, the previous wife of late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who endured a troubled marriage marked by household tragedies, her husband’s infidelities and her personal decadeslong struggles with alcoholism and psychological well being, died on Wednesday. She was 89.
Her loss of life was confirmed to NCS by the chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, Steve Kerrigan, in addition to a spokesperson for her son Patrick J. Kennedy.
The former Joan Bennett, one of the final remaining members of a household era that included President John F. Kennedy, was a mannequin and classically educated pianist when she married Ted Kennedy in 1958.
Their lives would change unimaginably over the subsequent decade and a half. Brother-in-law John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960 and assassinated three years later. Brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy served as lawyer normal below JFK, was elected to the US Senate in 1964 and assassinated whereas in search of the presidency.
Her husband was elected to the US Senate and have become among the many nation’s most revered legislators regardless of preliminary misgivings that he was capitalizing on his household connections. But Ted Kennedy additionally lived by scandals of his personal making. In 1969, the automobile he was driving plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his younger feminine passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.
Kennedy, who swam to security and waited hours earlier than alerting police, later pleaded responsible to leaving the scene of an accident. Chappaquiddick shadowed him for the remainder of his life, weighing towards his personal probabilities for the presidency.
Joan Kennedy had three kids along with her husband, but in addition had miscarriages, together with one shortly after the Chappaquiddick accident. She stood by her husband by the scandal, however their estrangement was practically not possible to cover by the point of his unsuccessful effort to defeat President Jimmy Carter within the 1980 Democratic primaries. They had been separated by then and would later divorce. One bumper sticker from the marketing campaign learn “Vote for Jimmy Carter, Free Joan Kennedy.”
Her love of piano could be a trademark for a lot of her life. She was recognized for opening her husband’s marketing campaign rallies with a piano serenade and, after they divorced, touring with orchestras all over the world. Her household mentioned she would mix her masterful enjoying with a message concerning the transformational potential of the humanities and the necessity for equitable arts schooling.
In a 1992 Associated Press interview, she recalled enjoying piano for brother-in-law Bobby when he ran for president in 1968. “He took me with him and encouraged me,” she mentioned. “He had a theme, ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ the Woody Guthrie song. I’d play that on the piano and everybody would come in, feeling really great about everything.”
“It seems like a long time ago, but it’s part of my memories,” she mentioned softly.
In an announcement, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island praised his mom for her braveness and expertise.
“Besides being a loving mother, talented musician, and instrumental partner to my father as he launched his successful political career, Mom was a power of example to millions of people with mental health conditions,” his assertion mentioned. “She will be missed not just by the entire Kennedy Family, but by the arts community in the City of Boston and the many people whose lives that she touched.”
She additionally turned one of the first ladies to publicly acknowledge her struggles with alcoholism and melancholy.
“I will always admire my mother for the way that she faced up to her challenges with grace, courage, humility, and honesty,” Ted Kennedy Jr. mentioned in an announcement. “She taught me how to be more truthful with myself and how careful listening is a more powerful communication skill than public speaking.”
Virginia Joan Bennett was born right into a distinguished Bronxville, New York, household and as a teen she labored as a mannequin in TV adverts. She was a classmate of Jean Kennedy, the longer term senator’s sister, at Manhattanville College, the place she caught Ted Kennedy’s eye when he visited the campus for a constructing dedication in 1957.
They married a 12 months later, however Joan Kennedy struggled from the beginning to slot in to the high-powered household.
“Joan was shy and a really reserved person, and the Kennedys aren’t,” Adam Clymer, creator of “Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography,” mentioned in a 2005 interview with the AP.
Kennedy is survived by her two sons, 9 grandchildren and different 30 nieces. Her daughter, Kara, died in 2011.