Kennedy Family: The Rise And Fall of a Major Political Family

Kennedy Family: John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy dressed in business suits posing for a photo in the White House

During the mid-20th Century, the Kennedy family were the most prominent political family in the US. Yet, within only a few decades, the Kennedys had lost a great deal of their influence, with the family being a shell of its former self.

At its height, one Kennedy sat in the White House, another was Attorney General, whilst another sat in the Senate. Today, not a single Kennedy sits in political office – a first since 1946!

This begs the question, what went so wrong for the Kennedys?

Aristocratic Origins

During their heyday, the Kennedy family were called the “American royal family” by the press. Interestingly, there’s evidence that suggests the Kennedys have royal blood in their veins…

According to genealogist Brian Kennedy (no relation), the modern-day Kennedy family are descended from the Irish O’Kennedy clan (or Ó Cinnéide in Gaelic), who once ruled the Kingdom of Ormond during the Medieval Period.

More specifically, the modern-day Kennedys are descended from the Ó Cinnéide Fionn clan (a cadet branch of the Ó Cinnéide clan) with their progenitor being Diarmaid Ó Cinnéide Fionn, who lived in the mid-16th century.

Just like many other Gaelic clans, the Ó Cinnéide clan as a whole prospered until the Protestant Ascendancy in the 17th century, where the entire Ó Cinnéide clan lost all the land it still held to Protestant English and Scotsmen.

Having lost their land and the social standing that came with it, the Ó Cinnéide Fionn left their ancestral homeland before ending up in Dunganstown, New Ross, County Wexford, in 1740.

The Ó Cinnéide Fionn (eventually anglicized to just O’Kennedy, and later, Kennedy) lived in Dunganstown for several generations, until Patrick Kennedy was born there in 1823.

Coming to America

Born into poverty, Patrick Kennedy tried to make a living for himself. However, when the Irish Potato Famine struck in 1845, Patrick Kennedy was one of millions of Irish people who fled Ireland for the US.

Arriving in East Boston, Massachusetts, Patrick Kennedy (along with every other Irish immigrant at the time) faced persecution, low pay and subpar accommodation, not to mention the relentless anti-Irish sentiment in every newspaper.

Yet, these conditions were still better than those back home in Ireland.

Having courted before immigrating to the US, Patrick Kennedy married Bridget Murphy on September 26 1849 in the Holy Redeemer Church in Boston. Together, the couple would have five children – three girls, two boys.

Due to the near-starvation wages Irish immigrants were paid at the time, both Patrick and Bridget were forced to work to support the family. Despite the odds being stacked against them, the Kennedy family did alright for themselves.

All good things must come to an end, however.

With the first three children the couple had being girls, the Kennedys longed for a boy. In 1854, the couple got their wish, with their fourth child being a boy, who they named John. Sadly, John was a sickly child, and died from cholera in 1855.

Even in spite of this great loss, the Kennedys decided to try again for another boy, which succeeded. A second son, who they named Patrick Joseph, or “P. J.” for short would be born January 14 1858. Unlike his brother, P. J. would be a healthy child.

Ten months after P. J.’s birth, however, Patrick Kennedy died at the tender age of 35.

A Reversal of Fortunes

Although the death of Patrick Kennedy was devastating for the Kennedy family, he left enough money for his wife to purchase the profitable stationary and notions store she’d been working at for years.

Using the profits the store generated, Bridget was able to send her only son, P. J., to school. Despite being the first in his family to have a formal education, P. J. dropped out at the age of 14 to help support his family financially.

Saving as much as possible, P. J. Kennedy soon went into business for himself, buying a saloon in Haymarket Square. The saloon’s central location, combined with P. J.’s acute business sense soon saw the saloon take off.

Capitalizing on his business successes, P. J. soon acquired another saloon, before purchasing a bar inside an upscale East Boston hotel, both of which soon became quite profitable.

Thanks to this, P. J. Kennedy soon became a leading member of the Irish community in Boston, being able to mix comfortably with both White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elites, and Roman Catholic Irish immigrants.

Seeing this, P. J. Kennedy parlayed his popularity with both Protestants and Catholics alike, to serve in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1884 until 1889, before serving in the state Senate between 1889 and 1895, both times as a Democrat.

By the time of his death in 1929, P. J. Kennedy had expanded his business holdings to include a large stake in a coal company and a similarly large stage in a bank – the Columbia Trust Company.

Enter Joseph P. Kennedy

Whilst serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, P. J. Kennedy met and married Mary Augusta Hickey, the daughter of another prominent Irish-American saloon owner in Boston.

Together, the couple had four children, one of whom died in infancy. The oldest of the Kennedy children was a son, known as Joseph Patrick, who followed in his father’s footsteps and became a prominent businessman in Boston.

In 1913, Joseph P. Kennedy found work at the Columbia Trust Company (the bank his father owned a large stake in) soon becoming the bank president. Eventually, Kennedy parlayed his bank presidency into a job on Wall Street.

After a few years working for another firm, Kennedy established his own Wall Street firm. Using what would today be called insider trading, Kennedy amassed a small fortune during the bull market of the pre-Depression 1920’s.

Having gotten out just before the crash, Kennedy increased his fortune by shorting shares massively, netting a huge profit which he then invested into real estate, entertainment and shipping, soon becoming one of the richest men of his time!

Supporting FDR financially in 1932, FDR repaid Kennedy by making him the first Commissioner of the SEC in 1934. Here, he was tasked with cleaning up Wall Street, and getting rid of many of the practices he’d used to make his fortune.

Despite praise from all sides, Kennedy resigned as SEC Commissioner in 1935. Thanks to his experience running a shipyard, Kennedy became the first Chairman of the US Maritime Commission in 1937.

Kennedy would then become the Ambassador to the UK in 1938, where he frequently came into conflict with Winston Churchill, who disliked Kennedy’s pro-appeasement and somewhat pro-Nazi stances.

Despite having been friends when he became the Ambassador, Kennedy’s friendship with FDR soured after he ran for a third term. This wasn’t because he thought it was bad form (as many others did), but rather because Kennedy wanted to follow FDR into the White House in 1940.

Founding a Dynasty

Together with his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (the daughter of Boston Mayor John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald), J. P. Kennedy had nine children, four boys and five girls.

Born into a family where the previous two generations had been in political, it was expected that this third generation would do the same. In effect, this would establish the Kennedy family as a bona fide political dynasty.

Originally grooming his eldest son, Joe Jr., to be the head of this political dynasty, his death in WWII put a damper on things. Instead of giving up, J. P. Kennedy set about grooming his second eldest son, John, to take his brother’s place.

Returning home from his service in Navy at the end of the war, John, better known by his initials JFK, ran for and was elected to, the House of Representatives, representing Massachusetts’s 11th congressional district from 1947 until 1953.

In 1953, JFK was elected to the US Senate, also representing Massachusetts. He’d remain there until he was elected president in 1960.

During his brother’s senatorial campaign, John’s younger brother, Bobby, resigned from his job in the Justice Department to be his brother’s campaign manager.

On top of making his brother famous across the state and the country to help him win the election, he also (inadvertently) made himself famous too, as no one had ever seen a politician go from unknown to a national figure so quickly!

As a senator, JFK continued to make the Kennedy name famous by being on several senatorial committees and subcommittees. In 1956, Kennedy even helped get Adlai Stevenson II the Democratic nomination for the presidency, although he eventually lost…

Bobby similarly became quite famous, being on Joseph McCarthy’s famed subcommittee investigating communist activity, as well as serving as an advisor to his father on the Hoover Commission.

The Highest Offices in The Land

In 1960, John ran for the Democratic nomination for president. As an Irish Catholic, in a country that still had a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment, many weren’t too optimistic about Kennedy’s chances at winning either the nomination or the election.

Facing off against Minnesotan Senator Huber Humphrey, Kennedy proved to be the more popular candidate, winning 10 states, compared to Humphrey’s two. Now the Democratic candidate, Kennedy was now facing Vice-President Richard Nixon.

Once again employing his brother, Bobby’s help, Kennedy and Nixon fought to gain voters, using new mediums like television, as well as old mediums like radio and newspapers, with Kennedy ultimately coming out on top.

Entering the White House on January 1961, John had fulfilled his father’s dream of having one of his sons in the White house and the Kennedy family becoming a true political dynasty. Best of all? His father got to see it!

Having resigned his seat in the Senate to become president, Benjamin Smith (a close friend of the Kennedy family) briefly took JFK’s old seat in the Senate, acting as a “seat-warmer” until JFK’s younger brother, Ted, turned 30 (the minimum age for a US Senator).

Turning 30 in February 1962, a special election was called to determine who would get JFK’s old seat. Choosing not to run, Ted Kennedy became the favorite, with him eventually taking his brother’s old seat in November 1962.

He’d hold this seat until his death in 2009, over 40 years later, making him the fourth longest-serving senator in US history!

Under his brother’s administration, Bobby Kennedy became the Attorney General, meaning that there were three members of the Kennedy family serving in high-ranking positions across the government.

Continued Public Service

On November 22 1963, JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas. Sworn in aboard Air Force One, Lyndon B. Johnson became president and the country (and the Kennedy family especially) mourned the loss of their president.

With campaigning for the 1964 Presidential Election almost underway, Johnson became the Democratic candidate. In hopes of allowing another Kennedy to enter the White House, many pushed for Bobby to be named his vice-president choice.

Having had a personal feud with JFK, that was later passed on to Bobby, Johnson refused and named Herbert Humphrey as his running mate.

Bobby, however, was then elected to the Senate before his own assassination on June 6 1968 at the hands of Sirhan Sirhan.

Mourning the loss of two of their sons, the family withdrew from the public eye, with only Ted Kennedy remaining in the Senate. It would take until 1987 for another member of the family to enter public office again.

That year, Bobby’s eldest son, Joseph Patrick Kennedy II, ran for and was elected to the House of Representatives, representing the 8th congressional district. Serving from 1987 until 1999, Joseph focused on helping to reform the financial industry, namely, modernizing it.

Two years after Joseph entered the House of Representatives, his cousin, Patrick II, entered the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Serving there from 1989 until 1993, Patrick II would later represent Rhode Island in the House from 1995 until 2011.

In 1993, JFK’s youngest sister, Jean, was appointed as the US Ambassador to Ireland, marking the first time a member of the Kennedy family had lived in Ireland for almost 200 years! She served there until 1998.

Kennedy Family Today

In 1995, Mark Shriver Kennedy (the son of JFK’s younger sister, Eunice, and her husband, Sargent Shriver) was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, serving until 2003. Here, he garnered national attention for his investigations into alternatives for incarceration.

That same year, Bobby Kennedy’s eldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, was elected as the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Coincidentally, Kathleen’s term as Lieutenant Governor also ended the same year her cousin left the Maryland House of Delegates!

Yes, this does mean that two members of the Kennedy family were helping to run Maryland at the same time…

In 2004, Mark’s older brother, Bobby Shriver, was elected to the Santa Monica, California City Council. Serving between 2004 and 2012, Mark acted as mayor twice, first as Mayor pro tem in 2006 as well as Mayor between May and December 2010.

The year after leaving the city council, Mark’s cousin JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, was appointed by President Obama to be the US Ambassador to Japan.

Under her tenure, US-Japanese relations have improved considerably, even if there were some rough patches along the way!

In 2015, Ted Kennedy’s eldest son, Edward Jr., was elected to the Connecticut State Senate, representing the 12th Senate district. Here, he served as the co-Chair of the Committee on the Environment and was Deputy Majority leader before retiring in 2019.

Two years before Edward Jr.’s election to the State Senate, Joseph “Joe” Kennedy III, was elected to the House of Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional.

Joe served there until 2021, when he retired to run for the Senate, although was ultimately unsuccessful. With Joe’s departure, it marks the first time since 1946 that there hasn’t been a Kennedy in political office.

Despite this, there is a sixth generation of the family that are currently teenagers and in their mid-to-late twenties, some of whom may enter public office in the future.

Beyond that, older members of the Kennedy family may choose to re-enter public life once again.

One such example may be Joe Kennedy, who is only in his early forties, so it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to re-enter politics and have a 20 year-long career ahead of him!

Prominence in Business

Despite being most famous for their roles as politicians, the Kennedy family have never forgotten how their family became so successful – by being wealthy and successful businessmen.

However, as they’re most famous for their roles as politicians, most of them are both politicians and businessmen.

Currently, the eldest son of Ted Kennedy, Edward Jr., is a partner at New York-based lar firm, Epstein Becker & Green, a disability-oriented law firm.

Beyond that, Bobby Kennedy’s eldest son, Joseph P. Kennedy II, is also a businessman. Having founded the non-profit Citizens Energy Corporation in 1979, Kennedy briefly left the company to focus on his political career.

Despite this, Kennedy returned once he left public office, continuing to run the company to this day, being the driving factor in the company’s heavy investment in renewable energy.

Another one of Bobby Kennedy’s sons, Christopher, is also a businessman. Currently, Christopher serves as the head of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises – the holdings company his grandfather established to hold his various assets.

“The Kennedy Curse”

When talking about the Kennedy family, it’s hard not to talk about the “Kennedy curse” that’s almost as famous as they are.

Called the “Kennedy curse” because so many members of the family died at such young ages, a total of 14 family members, over four generations, have fell victim to the curse.

The first to suffer the curse was JFK’s sister, Rosemary Kennedy, in 1941. Having suffered from a serious loss of oxygen whilst she was being born, Rosemary suffered from a reportedly low IQ, only being able to read Winnie-the-Pooh books at 15 years old.

Upon becoming an adult, Rosemary began to suffer seizures and violent mood swings too. Hoping to fix it, Joseph P. Kennedy arranged for her to have a lobotomy. Whilst she didn’t die, the lobotomy left her unable to walk and speak coherently for the rest of her life.

The first death would happen during WWII. In 1944, Joe Kennedy Jr. (JFK’s older brother) was flying a top-secret mission over the North Sea, when bombs inside the aircraft he was flying detonated prematurely, killing Joe Jr. instantly.

Four years later, in 1948, JFK’s younger sister, Kathleen, died in a plane crash.

Flying to the French Riviera for a vacation, her plane flew into a storm, where it entered a nosedive. Attempting to recover from the dive, the pilot inadvertently caused the plane to breakup mid-flight, before crashing to the ground, killing everyone immediately.

Most famously, JFK himself would be assassinated in Dallas on November 22 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald, whilst his brother, Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated on June 6 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan.

Later generations have seen deaths from drug overdoses (David in 1984, and Saoirse Kennedy Hill in 2019), skiing accidents (Michael in 1997) and more plane crashes (JFK Jr., and his wife, Carolyn, in 1999).

On a more natural note, the Kennedy curse has also seen two heart attacks (Kara Kennedy and Christopher Kennedy Lawford in 2011 and 2018).

More recently, 2020 saw the disappearance, and later death, of former Obama Administration aide, Maeve Kennedy McKean, and her eight-year-old son, Gideon.

Similarly a part of the curse, then Senator Ted Kennedy (JFK’s youngest brother) nearly died in his own plane crash in 1964. Whilst the pilot and Ted’s legislative aide died in the crash, Ted himself survived, suffering a back injury, internal bleeding and a punctured lung.

Enduring Legacy

Although the family is most important legacy has been the policies implemented by JFK and Bobby Kennedy, the Kennedy family has left a much larger impact than just that…

Perhaps the largest legacy the Kennedys can claim to have left is the strong UK-US relationship, especially so between British prime ministers and US presidents.

Not wanting to talk to FDR through Joseph P. Kennedy (then the US Ambassador to the UK) because he despised Kennedy’s pessimistic view of Britain’s chances fighting Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill sought to go around Kennedy and talk to FDR directly.

As it would happen, FDR similarly despised Kennedy, with both leaders bonding over that to begin with. For security reasons, a direct line between 10 Downing Street and the White House was established, so the pair could talk directly at any hour.

Despite several prime ministers and presidents coming and going, the direct line between both leaders is still there. Even today, the relationship between both leaders goes beyond politics, and is genuinely a friendship.

Without the Kennedys, it’s easy to see how the special relationship would never have come to be!

In 1951, owing to her being the mother of the first Catholic US President and her philanthropy, Pope Pius XII raised Rose Kennedy to the position of Papal Countess, becoming only the sixth American woman to be granted such an honor.

Due in large part to the large role the Kennedy family played in American politics, there are literally thousands of places named after various members of the family – mainly JFK – including schools, lakes, mountains, streets and buildings.

Yet, it’s not just in the US where there are places named after the family.

In the Solomon Islands, one of the islands is named “Kennedy Island” in JFK’s honor, whilst in Brazil, you can find two municipalities named in his honor. In Beirut, Lebanon, you can find “Rue John Kennedy” similarly named in his honor.

Beyond things named in JFK’s honor, there’s also a bridge in Ireland (the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge) and a bridge in New York City (Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge) named after their respective family members.

What do you think of the Kennedy Family? Are they going to be relegated to the pages of history, or are they about to stage a comeback? Tell me in the comments!