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Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.

 
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.

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Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.



 
 
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was a prominent American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 businessman and political figure, and the father of U.S. President
President of the United States

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition....
 John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
 and United States Senators Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also called RFK, was an United States politician. He was United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a United States Senator from New York from 1965 until his Robert F....
 and Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy is the Senior Senator United States Senate from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party . In office since November 1962, Kennedy is the list of current United States Senators by seniority member of the Senate, after President pro tempore of the United States Senate Robert Byrd of West Virginia....
. He was a leading member of the Democratic Party
History of the United States Democratic Party

The history of the Democratic Party of the United States is an account of the oldest political party in the United States and arguably the oldest democratic party in the world....
 and of the Irish Catholic
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 community. He was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , often referred to by his initials FDR, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
, and later directed the Maritime Commission.






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Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was a prominent American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 businessman and political figure, and the father of U.S. President
President of the United States

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition....
 John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
 and United States Senators Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also called RFK, was an United States politician. He was United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a United States Senator from New York from 1965 until his Robert F....
 and Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy is the Senior Senator United States Senate from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party . In office since November 1962, Kennedy is the list of current United States Senators by seniority member of the Senate, after President pro tempore of the United States Senate Robert Byrd of West Virginia....
. He was a leading member of the Democratic Party
History of the United States Democratic Party

The history of the Democratic Party of the United States is an account of the oldest political party in the United States and arguably the oldest democratic party in the world....
 and of the Irish Catholic
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 community. He was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , often referred to by his initials FDR, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
, and later directed the Maritime Commission. Kennedy served briefly as the United States Ambassador
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom

The office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service, and has been held by various notable politicians, including five future presidents: John Adams, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan....
 to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 at the start of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

Born to a political family in Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
, Joseph Kennedy was educated at Boston Latin and Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
, and embarked on a career in finance, making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries, including bootlegging
Rum-running

Rum-running is the business of smuggling or transporting of alcoholic beverages illegally, usually to circumvent taxation or prohibition. The term usually applies to transport of goods over water, over land it is commonly referred to as bootlegging....
, the illegal importation of alcohol into the United States during Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States

In the history of the United States, Prohibition is the period from 1920 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of Alcoholic beverage for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution....
. During World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, he was an assistant general-manager of Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S....
 and developed a friendship with Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios, ultimately merging several acquisitions into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios. After Prohibition
Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment, refers to a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol....
 ended in 1933, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when his company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon's Gin
Gordon's Gin

Gordon's is a brand of gin produced in the United Kingdom and under license in New Zealand and several other former British territories, with the top markets for Gordon's being the UK, US, Greece and Africa....
 and Dewar's
Dewar's

Dewar's is a brand of blended whisky created by John Dewar, Sr. in 1846. Under the control of his two sons, John A. Dewar Jr. and Thomas Dewar, the brand expanded to a global market by 1896....
 Scotch. He owned the largest office building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart

When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Mart, located in Chicago, Illinois, was the largest building in the world with of floor space....
, giving his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there.

His term as Ambassador and his political ambitions ended abruptly during the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially RAF Fighter Command....
 in November 1940, with the publishing of his controversial remarks suggesting that "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]." In later years, Kennedy worked behind the scenes to continue building the financial and political fortunes of the Kennedy family
Kennedy family

The Kennedy family is a family List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of the Irish American Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and prominent in United States Politics of the United States and government....
. After a disabling stroke
Stroke

A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. According to the National Stroke Association, a "stroke" occurs when a blood clot blocks and artery or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain....
 on December 19, 1961, at the age of 73, Kennedy lost all power of speech, and remained confined to a wheelchair, although mentally intact. He died on November 18, 1969, two months after his eighty-first birthday — just 4 days away from the sixth anniversary of the death of his son John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
.

Background, education and family

Jpbostonlatin
Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born in Boston, Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts

Boston is the State capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region, and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England." Boston city proper had a 2007 est...
. He was the son of Mary Augusta Hickey and P. J. Kennedy
P. J. Kennedy

Patrick Joseph Kennedy was an United States politician. He was the father of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and paternal grandfather to former United States President John F....
, a successful businessman, ward boss, and Irish American
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 community leader. All four of Joseph's grandparents immigrated to Massachusetts in the mid 1840s to flee the Irish famine. Kennedy was born into a highly sectarian environment where Irish Catholics felt themselves excluded by upper-class Yankee
Yankee

The term Yankee, sometimes abbreviated to Yank, has a few related meanings, often referring to someone of United States origin or heritage. Within the United States its meaning has varied over time....
s. Many Boston Irish became active in the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
, including P.J. and numerous relatives.

P.J. Kennedy's home was a prosperous and comfortable one, thanks to his successful saloon business, investments, and an influential role in local politics. His mother encouraged Joseph to attend the Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School

The Boston Latin School is a public education Magnet school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts, making it the List of the oldest public high schools in the United States existing school in the United States....
, where Joe was a below average scholar but was popular among his classmates, winning election as class president and playing on the school baseball team.

Kennedy followed in the footsteps of several older cousins by attending Harvard College
Harvard College

Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature....
. At Harvard he focused on becoming a social leader, working energetically to gain admittance to the prestigious Hasty Pudding Club
Hasty Pudding Club

The Hasty Pudding Club was founded by Nymphus Hatch, a junior at Harvard University, in 1790. The club is named for the traditional American dish that the founding members ate at their first meeting....
. While at Harvard he joined the Delta Upsilon
Delta Upsilon

Delta Upsilon is the 6th oldest international, all-male, college, Greek alphabet social fraternities and sororities and is the first non-secret fraternity ever founded....
 fraternity and played on the baseball team. He was blackballed from the Porcellian Club
Porcellian Club

The Porcellian Club is a male-only final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the P.C. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when a group began meeting under the name "the Argonauts," or as 1794, the year of the roast pig dinner at which the club, known first as "the Pig Club" was formally founded....
. His future father-in-law, John F. Fitzgerald
John F. Fitzgerald

John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was an Irish-American politician and the maternal grandfather of President of the United States John F. Kennedy....
, had attended Boston Latin School and Harvard Medical School.

Marriage & family

In 1914, Kennedy married Rose Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of John F. Fitzgerald
John F. Fitzgerald

John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald was an Irish-American politician and the maternal grandfather of President of the United States John F. Kennedy....
, the Democratic mayor of Boston and probably the most recognized politician in the city. Joe and Rose had the following nine children:

Name Birth Death Age Notes
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. was the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Elder brother of future President John F....
July 25, 1915August 12, 194429 years Killed in World War II
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
May 29, 1917November 22, 1963 46 yearsMarried 1953 to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. Became 35th President. Assassinated in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third largest city in the state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population in the United States.The city, with a population of over 1.3 million, is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex which contains 6.1 million people, and is the fourth-largest United States metropolitan area...
.
Rosemary Kennedy
Rosemary Kennedy

Rose Marie Kennedy was the third child and first daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, born a year after her brother, future President of the United States John F....
September 13, 1918January 7, 200586 yearsLobotomized in 1941, then institutionalised from 1949 until her death in 2005.
Kathleen Agnes KennedyFebruary 20, 1920May 13, 194828 yearsMarried 1944 to William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington; died in plane crash in France.
Eunice Mary Kennedy
Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver is a member of the Kennedy political family and helped to found the Special Olympics as a national event. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, she was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P....
July 10, 1921  Married 1953 to Robert Sargent Shriver
Sargent Shriver

Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. is an United States of America Democratic Party politician and activist. Known as "Sargent," Shriver is best-known as part of the Kennedy political family, the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and the Democratic Party's United States presidential election, 1972 vice President of the United St...
Patricia Kennedy
Patricia Kennedy Lawford

Patricia "Pat" Kennedy Lawford was an Social structure of the United States#Upper class socialite, the sixth child of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy....
May 6, 1924September 17, 200682 yearsMarried 1954 to Peter Lawford
Peter Lawford

Peter Sydney Lawford was an English-born actor, member of the "Rat Pack," and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting....
, divorced 1966
Robert Francis Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also called RFK, was an United States politician. He was United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a United States Senator from New York from 1965 until his Robert F....
November 20, 1925June 6, 196842 yearsMarried 1950 to Ethel Skakel. Served as United States Attorney General
United States Attorney General

The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the government of the United States....
 1961-1964, and Senator
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
 for state of New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 1965-1968. Assassinated in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
.
Jean Ann Kennedy
Jean Kennedy Smith

Jean Kennedy Smith was born Jean Ann Kennedy on February 20, 1928 in Brookline, Massachusetts, the eighth of the nine children of Joseph P....
February 20, 1928  Married 1956 to Stephen Edward Smith
Stephen Edward Smith

Stephen Edward Smith was the husband of Jean Ann Kennedy. They were married May 19, 1956, at which point he became the brother-in-law of future President John F....
; 1993 Ambassador to Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
; cameo in movie Michael Collins
Michael Collins (film)

Michael Collins is a List of Irish films#1990s List of historical drama films biographical film about Michael Collins , the Ireland patriotism and revolutionary who died in the Irish Civil War....
.
Edward Moore Kennedy February 22, 1932  Married 1958 to Joan Bennett, divorced in 1982; remarried in 1992 to Victoria Reggie. Has served as Senator
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
 for Massachusetts
Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
 since 1962.


Business career

Kennedy made a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries. He never built a significant business from scratch, but his timing as both buyer and seller was usually excellent. Sometimes he made use of inside information in ways which would later be made illegal, but regulations were lighter in his era. He later became the Chairman of the SEC
United States Securities and Exchange Commission

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is an Independent agencies of the United States government which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the security industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets....
. When Fortune
Fortune (magazine)

Fortune is a International business magazine published by Time Inc. Fortune|Money Group. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life , Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner....
 magazine published its first list of the richest people in the United States
Wealthiest Americans (1957)

In 1957 Fortune developed a list of the seventy-six wealthiest Americans; the list was republished in many American newspapers. The primary source of wealth was indicated as being inherited or stemming from a particular business or industry....
 in 1957 it placed him in the $200-400 million band, meaning that it estimated him to be between the ninth and sixteenth richest person in the United States at that time.

Early ventures

After graduating from Harvard in 1912, he took his first job as a state-employed bank examiner. This allowed him to learn a great deal about the banking industry. In 1913, the Columbia Trust Bank, in which his father held a significant share, was under threat of takeover. Kennedy, borrowing $45,000 from family and friends, bought back control and at age 25 was rewarded by being elected the bank's president, "the youngest in America."

Kennedy emerged as a highly successful entrepreneur with an eye for value. For example he turned a handsome profit from ownership of Old Colony Realty Associates, Inc., which bought distressed real estate.

Although skeptical of American involvement in World War I, he sought to participate in war-time production as an assistant general-manager of Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S....
, a major shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy, Massachusetts

Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "The City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream"....
. There he oversaw the production of transports and warships critical to the war. This job brought him into contact with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Wall Street

In 1919, he joined the prominent stock broker
Stock broker

A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional who buys and sells share s and other security through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors....
age firm of Hayden, Stone & Co.
Hayden, Stone & Co.

Hayden, Stone & Co. was a major securities firm and was at one point considered to be the third largest "wire-house" in the country behind only Merrill Lynch and Bache & Co.....
 where he became an expert in dealing in the unregulated stock market
Stock market

A stock market, or equity market, is a private or public Market system for the trade of Corporation stock and Derivative s of company stock at an agreed price; these are security listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately....
 of the day, engaging in tactics that would later be labeled insider trading
Insider trading

Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other security by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company....
 and market manipulation. In 1923 he left, and set up his own investment company, becoming a multi-millionaire during the bull market of the 1920s.

David Kennedy, author of Freedom From Fear, describes the Wall Street of the Kennedy era:

The Crash

Kennedy formed alliances with several other Irish-Catholic money men, including Charles E. Mitchell
Charles E. Mitchell

Charles Edwin Mitchell was an American banker whose incautious securities policies facilitated the speculation which led to the Crash of 1929. His firm's abuses brought an end to ownership of investment affiliates by commercial banks....
, Michael J. Meehan and Bernard Smith. He helped establish the Libby-Owens-Ford stock pool, an arrangement in which Kennedy and colleagues created a scarcity of Libby-Owens-Ford stock to drive up the value of their own holdings in the stock, using inside information and the public's lack of knowledge. Pool operators would bribe journalists to present information in the most advantageous manner. Attempts to corner stocks were made that would cause the price to go up, and bear raid
Bear raid

A bear raid is a type of stock market strategy, where a Trader attempts to force down the price of a stock to cover a short selling. This can be done by spreading negative rumors about the target firm, which puts downward pressure on the share price....
s could cause the price to collapse downward. Kennedy got into a bidding war seeking control of founder John Hertz
John D. Hertz

John Daniel Hertz was an United States businessman, thoroughbred horse racing owner, and philanthropist....
's company Yellow Cab
Yellow Cab

The original Yellow Cab Company based in Chicago, Illinois is one of the largest taxicab companies. Independent companies using that name operate in many cities in a number of countries....
 which is recounted in a book.

Kennedy later claimed he knew the rampant stock speculation of the late 1920s would lead to a crash. It is said that he knew it was time to get out of the market when he received stock tips from a shoe-shine boy.

It has been noted that during the Depression Kennedy vastly increased his financial fortune by investing most of his fortune in real estate. In 1929 Kennedy's fortune was estimated to be $4 million. By 1935, his wealth had increased to $180 million. According to Time Magazine, Kennedy survived the crash “because he possessed a passion for facts, a complete lack of sentiment and a marvelous sense of timing.”

Investments in Movie Production, Liquor Importing, Real Estate

Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios. Film production in the U.S. was much more decentralized than it is today, with many different movie studios producing film product. One small studio was FBO, Film Booking Offices of America
Film Booking Offices of America

Film Booking Offices of America was an American film studio of the Silent film, a producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began as Robertson-Cole , the American division of a United Kingdom import?export company....
, which specialized in Westerns produced cheaply. Its owner was in financial trouble and asked Kennedy to help find a new owner. Kennedy formed his own group of investors and bought it for $1.5 million.

Kennedy moved to Hollywood in March 1926 to focus on running the studio. Movie studios were then permitted to own exhibition companies which were necessary to get their films on local screens. With that in mind, in a hostile buyout, he acquired the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Theaters Corporation (KAO) which had more than seven hundred vaudeville
Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a genre of a variety show prevalent on the theatre in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrel show, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque....
 movie theaters across the United States. He later purchased another production studio called Pathe Exchange.

In October 1928, he formally merged his film companies FBO and KAO to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) and made a large amount of money in the process. Then, keen to buy the Pantages Theatre
Pantages Theatre

There were many theatres named the Pantages Theatre, after Alexander Pantages , an American vaudeville and early motion picture producer. These remain:...
 chain, which had 63 profitable theaters, Kennedy made an offer of $8 million. It was declined. He then stopped distributing his movies to Pantages. Still, Alexander Pantages
Alexander Pantages

Alexander Pantages was an United States vaudeville and early motion picture Film producer and impresario who created a large and powerful circuit of theatres across the western United States and Canada....
 declined to sell. However, when Pantages was later charged and tried for rape, his reputation took a battering and he accepted Kennedy's revised offer of $3.5 million.

It is estimated that Kennedy made over $5 million from his investments in Hollywood. During his affair with film star Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson was an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning United States actress. She was prolific during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B....
, he arranged the financing for her films The Love of Sunya
The Love of Sunya

The Love of Sunya is a silent film directed by Albert Parker , and based on the play The Eyes of Youth by Max Marcin and Charles Guernon....
 (1927) and the ill-fated Queen Kelly
Queen Kelly

Queen Kelly is the title of an United States silent film produced in 1928-29 and released in 1929 in film, originally by United Artists. The film was film director by Erich von Stroheim, starred Gloria Swanson in the title role, and also starred Walter Byron and Seena Owen....
 (1928).

Kennedy was, according to unproven rumours, an importer of alcoholic drinks from Canada into the USA during Prohibition. After Prohibition
Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment, refers to a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol....
 ended, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when his company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon's Dry Gin and Dewar's
Dewar's

Dewar's is a brand of blended whisky created by John Dewar, Sr. in 1846. Under the control of his two sons, John A. Dewar Jr. and Thomas Dewar, the brand expanded to a global market by 1896....
 Scotch. Anticipating the end of Prohibition, he assembled a large inventory of stock, which he later sold for a profit of millions of dollars when Prohibition
Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment, refers to a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol....
 was repealed in 1933. He invested this money in residential and commercial real estate in New York, and Hialeah Race Track in Hialeah, Florida
Hialeah, Florida

Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, Florida, United States. As of the United States Census 2000, the city population was 226,419. As of 2006, the population estimate by the U.S....
. His most important purchase was the largest office building in the country, Chicago's Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart

When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Mart, located in Chicago, Illinois, was the largest building in the world with of floor space....
, which gave his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there.

New Dealer

Kennedy's first major involvement in a national political campaign was his support in 1932 for Franklin D. Roosevelt's bid for the Presidency. He donated, loaned, and raised a substantial amount of money for the campaign. Roosevelt rewarded him with an appointment as the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Kennedy had hoped for a Cabinet post, such as Treasury. After Franklin Roosevelt called Joe to Washington to clean up the Securities and Exchange Commission, somebody asked F.D.R. why he had tapped such a crook. "Takes one to catch one," replied Roosevelt.

Kennedy's reforming work as SEC Chairman was widely praised on all sides, as investors realized the SEC was protecting their interests. His knowledge of the financial markets equipped him to identify areas requiring the attention of regulators. One of the crucial reforms was the requirement for companies to regularly file financial statements with the SEC, which broke what some saw as an information monopoly maintained by the Morgan banking family. (Kennedy would have known all about information monopolies.) He left the SEC in 1935 to take over the Maritime Commission, which built on his wartime experience in running a major shipyard.

Disputes with Father Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Coughlin
Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a Canada-born Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio broadcasting to reach a mass audience, as more than forty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s....
 was an Irish-Canadian priest in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Wayne County, Michigan. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwestern United States of the United States....
, who became perhaps the most prominent Roman Catholic spokesman on political and financial issues in the 1930s, with a radio audience that reached millions every week. A strong supporter of Roosevelt in 1932, Coughlin broke with the president in 1934 and became a bitter opponent in his weekly, anti-communist, anti-Federal Reserve and isolationist radio talks. Roosevelt sent Kennedy and other prominent Irish Catholics to try to tone down Coughlin. Coughlin swung his support to Huey Long
Huey Long

Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, was an United States politician from the U.S. state of Louisiana. A Democratic Party , he was noted for his Radicalism populism policies....
 in 1935 and then to William Lemke
William Lemke

William Frederick Lemke , was a United States politician.He was born in Albany, Minnesota, and raised in Towner County, North Dakota, the son of Fred Lemke and Julia Anna Klier, pioneer farmers who had accumulated some of land....
's Union Party
Union Party (United States)

The Union Party was a short-lived political party in the United States, formed in 1936 by a coalition of radio priest Father Charles Coughlin, old-age pension advocate Francis Townsend, and Gerald L....
 in 1936. Kennedy strongly supported the New Deal and believed as early as 1933 that Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out demagogue." In 1936, Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, Bishop Francis Spellman
Francis Cardinal Spellman

Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman wasthe ninth bishop and sixth archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. He served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York from 1939 until his death, and was named a Cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946....
 and Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church and monarch of Vatican City, from March 2, 1939 until his death in 1958....
) to shut Coughlin down. When Coughlin returned to the air in 1940, Kennedy continued to battle against his influence among the Irish.

Ambassador to Britain

In 1938, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as the United States Ambassador
Ambassadors from the United States

File:Flag of a US ambassador.svgThis article contains several lists of Ambassadors from the United States. There are also individual articles listing the holders of many of the ambassadorial offices, for which see :Category:Lists of United States ambassadors....
 to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's

The Court of St. James's is the name of the royal court of the United Kingdom....
 (Britain). Kennedy's Irish and Catholic status did not bother the British; indeed he hugely enjoyed his leadership position in London society, which stood in stark contrast to his outsider status in Boston. His daughter Kathleen married the heir
William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington

William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington was the eldest son of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire and the husband of Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish, sister of American President John F....
 to the Duke of Devonshire
Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire

Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, Order of the Garter, Order of the British Empire , known as Marquess of Hartington , was the head of the Devonshire branch of the House of Cavendish family....
, the head of one of England's grandest aristocratic families. Kennedy rejected the warnings of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour, Territorial Decoration, Fellow of the Royal Society, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Queen's Privy Council for Canada was a Politics of the United Kingdom known chiefly for his leadership of the United King...
 that compromise with Nazi Germany was impossible; instead he supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain

Arthur Neville Chamberlain was a British Conservative Party politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. Chamberlain is best known for appeasement foreign policy, in particular regarding his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany, and for his "containm...
's policy of appeasement
Appeasement

Appeasement is "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise, thereby avoiding the resort to an armed conflict which would be expensive, bloody, and possibly dangerous." The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of United Kingdom Prime Minister of t...
 in order to stave off a second world war that would be a more horrible "armageddon" than the first. Throughout 1938, as the Nazi persecution of Jews intensified, Kennedy attempted to obtain an audience with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
. Shortly before the Nazi aerial bombing of British cities
The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained bombing of United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the "Blitz" hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights ....
 began in September 1940, Kennedy sought a personal meeting with Hitler, again without State Department approval, "to bring about a better understanding between the United States and Germany."

Kennedy argued strongly against giving aid to Britain.

"Democracy is finished in England. It may be here," stated Ambassador Kennedy in the Boston Sunday Globe of November 10, 1940. In that one simple statement, Joe Kennedy ruined any future chances of becoming US president, effectively committing political suicide. While bombs fell daily on the UK, Nazi troops occupied Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, Ambassador Kennedy unambiguously and repeatedly stated his belief that the war was not about saving democracy from National Socialism (Nazism) or Fascism. In the now-infamous, long, rambling interview with two newspaper journalists, Louis M. Lyons
Louis M. Lyons

Louis M. Lyons was an United States journalist and curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Lyons wrote articles and columns for the Boston Globe starting in the 1920s....
 of the Boston Globe and Ralph Coghlan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwest region, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri as far south as Memphis, TN and as far north as Springfield, Illinoi...
, Kennedy opined:

"It's all a question of what we do with the next six months. The whole reason for aiding England is to give us time." ... "As long as she is in there, we have time to prepare. It isn't that [Britain is] fighting for democracy. That's the bunk. She's fighting for self-preservation, just as we will if it comes to us... I know more about the European situation than anybody else, and it's up to me to see that the country gets it,"

In British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 government circles during the Blitz, Ambassador Kennedy was widely disparaged as a defeatist
Defeatism

Defeatism is acceptance of defeat without struggle. In everyday use, defeatism has negative connotation and is often linked to treason and pessimism, or even a hopeless situation such as a Catch-22 ....
 and also known as a coward
Cowardice

Cowardice describes a personality trait which is typically viewed as a negative characteristic and has been generally frowned upon within most, if not all global cultures, while courage - typically viewed as its direct opposite - is generally rewarded and encouraged....
. He became known as Jittery Joe for his propensity to run for cover to an air raid shelter located near Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire

Windsor is a suburban town and tourist destination in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is best known as the site of Windsor Castle....
 at the slightest sign of an air raid.

When the American public and Roosevelt Administration officials read his quotes on democracy being "finished", and his belief that the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially RAF Fighter Command....
 wasn't about "fighting for democracy," all of it being just "bunk", they realized that Ambassador Kennedy could not be trusted to represent the United States. In the face of national public outcry, he was offered the chance to fall on his sword, and he submitted his resignation later that month.

Throughout the rest of the war, relations between Kennedy and the Roosevelt Administration remained tense (especially when Joe Kennedy, Jr., vocally opposed FDR's renomination). Having effectively removed himself from the national stage, Joe Sr. sat out the war on the sidelines. Kennedy did however stay active in the smaller venues of rallying Irish and Roman Catholic Democrats to vote for Roosevelt's reelection in 1944. He claimed to be eager to help the war effort, but as a result of his previous gaffes, he was neither trusted nor re-invited.

With his own ambitions for the White House in self-inflicted ruins, he held out great hope for his eldest son Joseph Jr.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. was the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Elder brother of future President John F....
 to gain the presidency. However, Joe Jr. was killed over England while undertaking a high-risk bombing mission
Opération Aphrodite

Op?ration Aphrodite is a French science fiction novel written by Henri Ren? Guieu, under the pseudonym Jimmy Guieu. It was written in 1955....
 in 1944. Kennedy then turned his attention to grooming the second son, John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
, who won the 1960 election.

Anti-Semitism

Kennedy was (for a while) a close friend with the leading Jewish lawyer Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States....
, who helped Kennedy get his sons into the London School of Economics, where they worked with Harold Laski
Harold Laski

Harold Joseph Laski was an English political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, and served as the 1945-1946 chairman of the Labour Party ....
, a leading Jewish intellectual and prominent Socialist. While holding positive attitudes towards individual Jews, Kennedy's views of the Jews as a people were, by his own admission, overwhelmingly negative.

According to Harvey Klemmer, who served as one of Kennedy's embassy aides, Kennedy habitually referred to Jews as "kike
Kike

In modern English language, the word kike is a pejorative ethnic slur referring to a Jew. In some languages, such as Spanish, this word is a given name or shortened from a longer form and is not considered derogatory....
s or sheenies." Kennedy allegedly told Klemmer that "[some] individual Jews are all right, Harvey, but as a race they stink. They spoil everything they touch." When Klemmer returned from a trip to Germany and reported the pattern of vandalism and assault on Jews by Nazis, Kennedy responded "well, they brought it on themselves."

On June 13, 1938, Kennedy met with Herbert von Dirksen
Herbert von Dirksen

Herbert von Dirksen was a German diplomat who is best remembered as the last German Embassy in London before World War II.Dirksen was born to a recently ennobled family....
, the German ambassador in London, who claimed in Berlin that Kennedy had told him that "it was not so much the fact that we want to get rid of the Jews that was so harmful to us, but rather the loud clamor with which we accompanied this purpose. [Kennedy] himself fully understood our Jewish policy." Kennedy's main concern with such violent acts against German Jews as Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht

File:1938 Interior of Berlin synagogue after Kristallnacht.jpgKristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass or "night of shattered crystal" was a pogrom in Nazi Germany on November 9?10, 1938....
 was that they generated bad publicity in the West for the Nazi regime, a concern he communicated in a letter to Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an United States aviator, author, inventor and explorer.On May 20?21, 1927, Lindbergh emerged instantaneously from virtual obscurity to world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in New York City to Paris - Le Bourget Airport in Paris in the s...
.

Kennedy had a close friendship with Nancy Astor; the correspondence between them is reportedly replete with anti-Semitic tropes. As Edward Renehan notes:
As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase).... Kennedy replied that he expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem, that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world."


By August 1940, Kennedy worried that a third term for Roosevelt meant war; as Leamer reports, "Joe believed that Roosevelt, Churchill, the Jews and their allies would manipulate America into approaching Armageddon." Nevertheless, Kennedy supported Roosevelt's third term in return for Roosevelt's support of Joseph Kennedy Jr. for Governor of Massachusetts in 1942. Even during the height of the conflict, however, Kennedy remained "more wary of" prominent American Jews such as Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States....
 than he was of Hitler.

Kennedy told reporter Joe Dinneen:
It is true that I have a low opinion of some Jews in public office and in private life. That does not mean that I... believe they should be wiped off the face of the earth... Jews who take an unfair advantage of the fact that theirs is a persecuted race do not help much... Publicizing unjust attacks upon the Jews may help to cure the injustice, but continually publicizing the whole problem only serves to keep it alive in the public mind.
When Dinneen wrote The Kennedy Family, he was pressured to remove these quotations from the book by John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
 himself. Dineen complied.

Political alliances

Kennedy used his wealth and connections to build a national network of supporters that became the base for his sons' political careers. He especially concentrated on the Irish American
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 community in large cities, particularly Boston, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and several New Jersey cities.

Alliance with Senator McCarthy

Kennedy's close ties with Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was an United States politician who served as a Republican Party United States Senate from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957....
 strengthened his family's position among Irish Catholics, but weakened it among liberals who strongly opposed McCarthy. Even before McCarthy became famous in 1950, Kennedy had forged close ties with the Republican Senator from Wisconsin. Kennedy often brought him to Hyannis Port as a weekend house guest in the late 1940s. McCarthy at one point dated Patricia Kennedy. When McCarthy became a dominant voice of anti-Communism starting in 1950, Kennedy contributed thousands of dollars to McCarthy, and became one of his major supporters. In the Senate race of 1952, Joseph apparently worked a deal so that McCarthy, a Republican, would not make campaign speeches for the GOP ticket in Massachusetts. In return, Congressman John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
, running for the Senate seat, would not give any anti-McCarthy speeches that his liberal supporters wanted to hear. In 1953 at Kennedy's urging McCarthy hired Robert Kennedy (age 27) as a senior staff member of the Senate's investigations subcommittee, which McCarthy chaired. In 1954, when the Senate was threatening to condemn McCarthy, Senator John Kennedy faced a dilemma. "How could I demand that Joe McCarthy be censured for things he did when my own brother was on his staff?" asked JFK. By 1954, however, Robert Kennedy and McCarthy's chief aide, Roy Cohn
Roy Cohn

Roy Marcus Cohn was an United States Conservatism in the United States lawyer who became famous during the investigations by Senator Joseph McCarthy into alleged Communists in the U.S....
, had had a falling out and Robert no longer worked for McCarthy. John Kennedy had a speech drafted calling for the censure of McCarthy but he never delivered it. When the Senate voted to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator Kennedy was in the hospital and never indicated then or later how he would vote. Joe strongly supported McCarthy to the end.

Presidential ambitions for family


Joe Kennedy was a fiercely ambitious individual who thrived off competition and winning. And, in his eyes, the ultimate prize was being president of the United States. Joe Kennedy wanted his first son, Joseph Kennedy Jr. to become president, but after his death in WWII, he became determined to make his eldest surviving son, John F. Kennedy, president.

Joe Kennedy was consigned to the political shadows after his remarks during WWII that "Democracy is finished...", and he remained an intensely controversial figure among U.S. citizens because of his suspect business credentials, his Roman Catholicism, his opposition to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and his support for Joseph McCarthy. As a result, his presence in John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign had to be downplayed. Having him in the spotlight would hurt John, making it look as if it were his father who was running for president.

However, Joe Kennedy still drove the campaign behind the scenes. He played a central role in planning strategy, fundraising, and building coalitions and alliances. Joe supervised the spending and to some degree the overall campaign strategy, helped select advertising agencies, and was endlessly on the phone with local and state party leaders, newsmen, and business leaders. He had met thousands of powerful people in his career, and often called in his chips to help his sons. He would use this to his son's advantage.

His father's connections and influence was turned directly into political capital for the senatorial and presidential campaigns of John, Robert and Ted. Historian Richard J. Whalen describes Joe's influence on John Kennedy's policy decisions in his biography of Joseph Kennedy. Joe was influential in creating the Kennedy Cabinet (Robert Kennedy as Attorney General for example). However, in 1961, Joe Kennedy suffered from a stroke that placed even more limitations on his influence in his sons' political careers. Joseph Kennedy expanded the Kennedy Compound
Kennedy Compound

The Kennedy Compound or Hyannis Port Historic District is the name given to six acres of waterfront property along Nantucket Sound in Hyannis, Massachusetts, Massachusetts....
, which continues as a major center of family get-togethers.

When John F. Kennedy was asked about the level of involvement and influence that his father had held in his razor-thin presidential victory, JFK would joke that on the eve before the election, his father had asked him the exact number of votes he would need to win - there was no way he was paying "for a landslide." John's presidency was a victory for Joe. He saw it as a step forward for, not just his son, but the entire Kennedy family. Joe was a family man and strategically constructed his family's image towards the public. He once said,"Image is reality", and the presidency framed the Kennedy family picture.

Stroke and death

On December 19, 1961, at the age of 73, Kennedy suffered a major stroke
Stroke

A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. According to the National Stroke Association, a "stroke" occurs when a blood clot blocks and artery or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain....
. He survived, but lost all power of speech, and was left paralyzed on his right side. Kennedy did regain certain functions with the help of therapies. Most notably, he went to The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential
The Institutes for The Achievement of Human Potential

The Institutes for The Achievement of Human Potential is a non-profit organization providing teaching programs and literature which, it claims, improve the health and neurological development of normal children and of children who have sustained a brain injury....
 in 1964, a Philadelphia center that teaches therapies for people with brain injuries. Kennedy made gains with therapy, and began walking with the help of a cane. His speech also showed some improvement. However, being 75 years old and greatly weakened, Kennedy was soon confined to a wheelchair. Despite being severely disabled from the stroke, Kennedy remained aware of the tragedies that befell his family until his own death, on November 18, 1969, two months after his eighty-first birthday. His final public appearance was with Rose and Sen. Edward Kennedy in a videotaped message to the country a few weeks after the death of Robert Kennedy, which showed his extremely frail physical condition.

Joseph and Rose Kennedy's children today

As of October 2008 three of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children are still alive, 87-year old Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver is a member of the Kennedy political family and helped to found the Special Olympics as a national event. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, she was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P....
, 80-year old Jean Kennedy Smith
Jean Kennedy Smith

Jean Kennedy Smith was born Jean Ann Kennedy on February 20, 1928 in Brookline, Massachusetts, the eighth of the nine children of Joseph P....
, and 76-year-old Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy
Ted Kennedy

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy is the Senior Senator United States Senate from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party . In office since November 1962, Kennedy is the list of current United States Senators by seniority member of the Senate, after President pro tempore of the United States Senate Robert Byrd of West Virginia....
.

Of the six deceased children of Joe and Rose Kennedy, the only two to die of natural causes were their daughters Rose Marie Kennedy (commonly called Rosemary instead of Rose Marie) and Patricia Kennedy Lawford
Patricia Kennedy Lawford

Patricia "Pat" Kennedy Lawford was an Social structure of the United States#Upper class socialite, the sixth child of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy....
. Rose Marie (who was Joe and Rose's first daughter) underwent a lobotomy
Lobotomy

A lobotomy is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex....
 in 1941 at the age of 23 after Joe Kennedy was informed that his daughter's mental disorder could be cured by such an operation. The lobotomy—an operation now deprecated—went wrong, and Rose Marie was left with profound brain damage. Rose Marie was cared for at St. Coletta's institution in Wisconsin
Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. state in the United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States. It borders two of the five Great Lakes and four U.S....
 from 1949 until her death of natural causes on January 7, 2005, at the age of 86. Patricia (who was the fourth daughter) died from complications due to pneumonia
Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an Inflammation illness of the lung. Frequently, it is described as lung parenchyma/alveolus inflammation and abnormal alveolar filling with fluid ....
 on September 17, 2006, at the age of 82. Joseph was especially close to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jacqueline "Jackie" Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady during his presidency from 1961 until his John F....
.

In fiction

In the alternate history novel Fatherland
Fatherland (novel)

Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 Thriller novel by the England writer and Journalism Robert Harris , which doubles as a work of alternate history ....
 by Robert Harris, set in 1964, Joseph P. Kennedy - not his son John F. Kennedy - is president of the United States and about to arrive in Berlin to conclude a treaty with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
. Joseph Kennedy also plays a significant role as a character in Michael Dobbs
Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs is a Conservative Party United Kingdom politician and bestselling author....
's fictionalized account of the rise of Winston Churchill, Winston's War
Winston's War

Winston's War is a 2003 novel by Michael Dobbs that presents a fictional account of the struggle of Winston Churchill to combat the appeasement policies of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain....
.

Ancestors

Joseph P. Kennedy's ancestors in three generations
1– Joseph P. Kennedy
(09.06.1888–11.18.1969)
2– Francis Benedict Kennedy
(03.11. 1891–06.14.1892)
3– Mary Loretta Kennedy
(08.06.1892–11.18.1972)
4– Margaret Louise Kennedy
(10.22.1898–11.14.1974)
Father:
P. J. Kennedy
P. J. Kennedy

Patrick Joseph Kennedy was an United States politician. He was the father of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and paternal grandfather to former United States President John F....
 
(01.14.1858–05.18.1929)
Paternal grandfather:
Patrick Kennedy
Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy was the father of P. J. Kennedy and great-grandfather to John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. He was born in Dunganstown, County Wexford, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States, settling in East Boston, Boston, Massachusetts....
Paternal great-grandfather:
James Kennedy
Paternal great-grandmother:
Maria Kennedy
Paternal grandmother:
Bridget Murphy
Bridget Murphy

Bridget Murphy was the wife of Patrick Kennedy , the great-great grandmother of Patrick J. Kennedy, paternal grandmother to Joseph P. Kennedy, and a great-grandmother to the assassinated United States President, John F....
Paternal great-grandfather:
Philip Murphy
Paternal great-grandmother:
Mary Barron
Mother:
Mary Augusta Hickey
(12.6.1857–05.20.1923)
Maternal grandfather:
James Hickey
Maternal great-grandfather:
Maternal great-grandmother:
Maternal grandmother:
Margaret M. Field
Maternal great-grandfather:
Maternal great-grandmother:

See also

  • Kennedy family
    Kennedy family

    The Kennedy family is a family List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy of the Irish American Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, and prominent in United States Politics of the United States and government....
  • List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
    List of descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

    This is a list of the descendants of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, of the United States Kennedy family:*Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. U.S Ambassador to the Court of St....
  • Kennedy Curse
    Kennedy Curse

    The Kennedy Curse is a series of tragic events that have happened to members of the Kennedy family. Some have called the continual misfortune of the Kennedy family a curse....
  • List of well-known U.S. presidential relatives


Bibliography

  • Brinkley, Alvin. Voices of Protest. Vintage, 1983.
  • Goodwin, Doris K.
    Doris Kearns Goodwin

    Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S....
    , The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (1987)
  • Hersh, Seymour
    Seymour Hersh

    Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize winning Investigative journalism journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters....
    . The Dark Side of Camelot. Back Bay Books, 1998.
  • Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Men: . Harper, 2002.
  • Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings (2003)
  • Kessler, Ronald
    Ronald Kessler

    Ronald Borek Kessler is an American journalist and author. He is chief Washington, D.C. correspondent of the conservative news and commentary website Newsmax.com....
    , The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded, Warner , 1996, ISBN
  • O'Brien, Michael. John F. Kennedy: A Biography (2005)
  • Renehan, Edward. The Kennedys at War, . Doubleday, 2002.
  • Renehan, Edward. "Joseph Kennedy and the Jews". History News Network. George Mason University, April 29, 2002.
  • Schwarz, Ted, "Joseph P. Kennedy" 2003, ISBN
  • Smith, Amanda, ed. Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy (2002), the major collection of letters to and from Kennedy
  • Whalen, Richard J., "The Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy". The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1964.


External links