The Kennedys
Three generations of a Boston-Irish family that turned American politics into the closest thing the republic has to a royal house, and paid for it repeatedly.
The founders
Everything downstream starts with one self-made fortune and one iron ambition: to turn money into political power within a generation.
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
1888 – 1969Self-made multimillionaire; first chairman of the SEC, then U.S. Ambassador to Britain. Openly unfaithful throughout his marriage, his affair with actress Gloria Swanson was the most famous, and by most biographers' accounts actively encouraged the same in his sons.
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
1890 – 1995Daughter of Boston mayor "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. Bore nine children in eighteen years and outlived five of them. Lived to 104, long enough to see two grandchildren die and a third become a president's widow twice over.
The nine
1915–1932The generation the myth is actually about. Four of the nine died before fifty, by war, accident, or assassination.
Joseph Jr.
1915–1944The original heir, his grandfather predicted he'd be the first Catholic president. Killed when his explosives-laden bomber detonated over England on a volunteer mission, age 29.
John Fitzgerald
1917–196335th President of the United States, 1961–63. Youngest man ever elected to the office. Assassinated in Dallas, age 46.
Rosemary
1918–2005Intellectually disabled from birth. Given a lobotomy in 1941 on her father's order, without her mother's knowledge. Institutionalized for the rest of her life.
Kathleen "Kick"
1920–1948Married into British aristocracy. Widowed within months when her husband was killed in WWII. Died in a plane crash over France, age 28.
Eunice Shriver
1921–2009Founded the Special Olympics in 1968. Widely regarded, including within the family, as the sibling who did the most enduring good with the name.
Patricia "Pat"
1924–2006Married actor Peter Lawford, the family's direct social link to Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack." Divorced in 1966.
Robert Francis
1925–1968U.S. Attorney General under JFK, later Senator from New York. Assassinated in Los Angeles while running for president, age 42.
Jean Kennedy Smith
1928–2020U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, 1993–98. The last of the nine siblings to die.
Edward "Ted"
1932–2009U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for 47 years, the "Lion of the Senate." A 1969 crash on Chappaquiddick Island killed passenger Mary Jo Kopechne and ended his presidential prospects for good.
The wire
1944–1999What the public actually experienced, in the order it landed, the sequence that built the "Kennedy curse" as a piece of national folklore.
Where it stands now
Selected, gen. III+The dynasty didn't stop in 1999, it just got quieter, then abruptly loud again in Washington.
Caroline Kennedy
b. 1957JFK's only child still living. Author and attorney; served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 2013–17.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
b. 1954RFK's son. Environmental lawyer turned anti-vaccine activist. Ran for president in 2024, dropped out, endorsed Trump.
Now: U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services (since Feb 2025)John F. Kennedy Jr.
1960–1999Lawyer, then founder of George magazine. Died piloting the plane that crashed off Martha's Vineyard.
David & Michael Kennedy
1955–1984 · 1958–1997Two of RFK's eleven children, both dead before 40, overdose and skiing accident, thirteen years apart.
"There'll be great presidents again… but there'll never be another Camelot."
Jackie Kennedy's own words, given to journalist Theodore White one week after the assassination, and by most historical accounts, a myth she built on purpose, in real time, over a single evening.