Sinead Fitzgibbon - JFK: History in an Hour

Joseph Patrick Kennedy 18881969

Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 6 September 1888. He was the eldest child and only surviving son of prominent businessman and politician PJ Kennedy, and his wife, Mary Hickey. Having received his early education at the Catholic Xaverian School, Joe transferred to the prestigious Boston Latin School at the age of thirteen. In 1908, he was accepted to Harvard and graduated in 1912.

Joseph Kennedy

Highly ambitious from an early age, Joe began his career at the Columbia Trust Company, a banking institution which was controlled by his father. The young mans exceptional business acumen saw him rise quickly up the ranks, and, by the age of twenty-five, he was the countrys youngest-ever bank president.

In October 1914, Joe married his long-time sweetheart, Rose Fitzgerald. The couple would go on to have nine children: four boys and five girls.

During World War One, Joe worked as an assistant manager at a major shipyard, supervising the production of warships and other equipment critical to the war effort. He later branched out into stock market trading, and avoided catastrophe by cashing in his investments before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Having succeeded in his stated aim of becoming a millionaire by the time he was thirty-five, Kennedys later business ventures, which included whiskey importation and movie production, only added to his fortune.

Joe first became involved in politics when he lent his support to Franklin D Roosevelts successful presidential campaign in 1932. In exchange for his significant financial donations, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy president of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a newly established body tasked with regulating the financial industry. When asked to explain his decision, FDR reportedly claimed that it takes a thief to catch a thief, a reference to some of Joes allegedly illegitimate business dealings.

Kennedys tenure at the SEC was followed by a brief stint as Chairman of the Maritime Commission, and then in 1938 he was appointed as the United States Ambassador to Great Britain. However, his opposition to US intervention in World War Two made him unpopular with many senior British politicians, including Churchill. He was forced to resign in December 1940 after he declared in a newspaper interview that democracy is finished in England.

In 1941, Kennedy, on the advice of doctors, authorized a lobotomy on his third child and eldest daughter, Rosemary. The twenty-three-year-old was believed to suffer from mental retardation and was prone to severe mood swings. It was hoped the procedure would alleviate her symptoms. It did not. Rosemary was left with a permanent mental disability and was institutionalized for the rest of her life. She died in 2005 at the age of eighty-six.

Joe Kennedy never made any secret of the ambitions he held for his family. I got Jack into politics, he told a reporter in 1957, I was the one. I told him Joe was dead and that it was therefore his responsibility to run for Congress. He didnt want to do it. He felt he didnt have the ability and he still feels that way. But I told him he had to do it.

Joe Kennedy suffered from a stroke on 19 December 1961, which left him partially paralysed and without speech. Further strokes followed, and he eventually died on 18 November 1969, at the age of eighty-one. He nevertheless outlived his sons Jack and Bobby, both of whom were assassinated.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy 18901995

Born on 22 July 1890, Rose Fitzgerald was the eldest child of John Francis Honey Fitz Fitzgerald and Mary Josephine Hannon. Having received her education at Dorchester High School, she graduated in 1906. An accomplished musician, Rose also studied piano at the New England Conservatory. In 1914, at the age of twenty-four, she married the ambitious Joseph Kennedy. Over the course of seventeen years, she would bear a total of nine children, only five of whom would outlive her.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1969

A devout Roman Catholic who did not believe in divorce, Rose endured her husbands many infidelities. In 1951, Pope Pius XII bestowed on her the honorary title of Papal countess in acknowledgement of her exemplary motherhood and many charitable works. As she had once asked, Wasnt there a book about Michelangelo called The Agony and the Ecstasy ? Thats what my life has been. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died on 22 January 1995, at the age of 104.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis 19291994

Born on 28 July 1929 in Southampton, New York, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was the eldest of two daughters. Her parents were John Black Jack Bouvier, a successful Wall Street stockbroker and Janet Norton Lee. The couple divorced in 1940, when Jacqueline was ten years old.

A bright child, Jacqueline enjoyed reading and did well at school. One of her teachers described her as a darling child, the prettiest little girl, very clever, very artistic, and full of the devil. In addition to taking lessons in French and ballet, Jacqueline was also an accomplished equestrienne, and her love of horses would last her a lifetime. Jacquelines teenage years were spent at an exclusive boarding school in Connecticut. Graduating in 1947, she continued her education at Vassar College, where she read French, history, art, and literature. Two years later, in 1949, Jacqueline participated in a study abroad programme, which saw her relocating to France to attend the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne. Returning to the US in 1950, she completed her education at the George Washington University in Washington DC.

She began her career in 1951 as the Inquiring Camera Girl for the Washington Times-Herald newspaper. During this time, she was briefly engaged to John Husted, another stockbroker, but she ended the relationship in March 1952. In May of that year, Jacqueline met Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy at a dinner party. After a spasmodic courtship, they became engaged the following year. The wedding took place on 12 September 1953 at St Marys Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

Jackie Kennedy

The marriage was fraught with difficulties from the outset, not least of which was Senator Kennedys serial infidelity. Jackies first pregnancy ended in miscarriage in 1955, and she gave birth to a stillborn daughter in August 1956. Happily, a healthy daughter, Caroline, arrived in November 1957, followed by a son, John Jr, in 1960. A second son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, was born on 7 August 1963, but died two days later from a respiratory illness.

Jacqueline, who disliked the shortening of her name to Jackie, occupied the role of First Lady of the United States from 1961 until her husbands assassination in late 1963. During this time, she dedicated herself to the restoration of the White House, and with the help of conservation specialists and art experts she succeeded in establishing the White House as the nations cultural centre. She enjoyed widespread popularity as First Lady and was regarded as a style icon the world over.

Jackie Kennedy with her husband and children, 1962

On 22 November 1963, as she was travelling alongside her husband in an open-top car through the streets of Dallas, President Kennedy was shot. Accompanying her husbands body back to Washington DC on board Air Force One, the former First Lady witnessed the swearing in of Lyndon B Johnson as her husbands successor. Her bloodstained, pink Chanel suit became another defining image of that terrible day.

In 1968, Jacqueline married the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. The pair remained together until Onassiss death in 1975. In later years, Jacqueline worked as an editor for the publishing houses Viking Press and Doubleday. She died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma on 19 May 1994, at the age of sixty-four. She was laid to rest beside President Kennedy in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.