Joan B. Kennedy, the former spouse of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 89. Joan’s life was marked by a challenging marriage filled with family misfortunes, her husband’s infidelities, and her own prolonged battles with alcoholism and mental health issues.
Born Joan Bennett, she was one of the last few from a storied family generation that included President John F. Kennedy. Before marrying Ted Kennedy in 1958, she was a model and a classically-trained pianist.
The subsequent decade and a half dramatically altered their lives. Her brother-in-law John F. Kennedy won the presidency in 1960 but was assassinated in 1963. Another brother-in-law, Robert F. Kennedy, served as attorney general under JFK, became a U.S. senator in 1964, and was assassinated while campaigning for the presidency.
Ted Kennedy secured a position in the U.S. Senate and grew to be one of the nation’s most esteemed lawmakers, overcoming doubts about nepotism. However, he was also embroiled in scandals, most notably in 1969 when he drove a car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, resulting in the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.
After swimming to safety, Kennedy delayed notifying authorities for several hours and later admitted guilt for leaving the accident scene. This incident shadowed his career, impacting his presidential aspirations.
Joan Kennedy, who had three children with Ted, experienced several miscarriages, one shortly following the Chappaquiddick incident. She supported him during the scandal, but their separation became evident by his unsuccessful 1980 campaign against President Jimmy Carter in the Democratic primaries. By then, they were separated, eventually divorcing. During the campaign, a bumper sticker famously stated, “Vote for Jimmy Carter, Free Joan Kennedy.”
Her death comes about a year after Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, died at the age of 96, having raised their 11 children after he was assassinated, and remaining dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter.
Virginia Joan Bennett was born into a prominent Bronxville, N.Y., family and as a teen she worked as a model in TV ads. She was a classmate of Jean Kennedy, the future senator’s sister, at Manhattanville College, where her exceptional beauty caught Ted Kennedy’s eye when he visited the campus for a building dedication in 1957.
They married a year later, but Joan Kennedy struggled from the start to fit in to the high-powered family.
“Joan was shy and a really reserved person, and the Kennedys aren’t,” Adam Clymer, author of “Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography” said in an 2005 interview with the AP.
Her love of piano would be a trademark for much of her life. She was known for opening her husband’s campaign rallies with a piano serenade and, after they divorced, touring with orchestras around the world. Her family said she would combine her masterful playing with a message about the transformational potential of the arts and the need for equitable arts education.
In a 1992 Associated Press interview, she recalled playing piano for brother-in-law Bobby when he ran for president in 1968. “He took me with him and encouraged me,” she said. “He had a theme, ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ the Woody Guthrie song. I’d play that on the piano and everybody would come in, feeling really great about everything.”
“It seems like a long time ago, but it’s part of my memories,” she said, while promoting a book she wrote, which was a guide to appreciating classical music.
She also talked in the interview about how music helped her get through some difficult times, including the deaths of Jack and Bobby Kennedy, when her son Ted Jr. lost his leg to cancer and her separation and divorce from Ted Kennedy.
“I do advise listening to music when you’re in grief,” she said. “Music has give me a lot of courage to carry on.”
In a statement, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island praised his mother for her courage and talent.
“Besides being a loving mother, talented musician, and instrumental partner to my father as he launched his successful political career, Mom was a power of example to millions of people with mental health conditions,” his statement said. “She will be missed not just by the entire Kennedy Family, but by the arts community in the City of Boston and the many people whose lives that she touched.”
She also became one of the first women to publicly acknowledge her struggles with alcoholism and depression.
“I will always admire my mother for the way that she faced up to her challenges with grace, courage, humility, and honesty,” Ted Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “She taught me how to be more truthful with myself and how careful listening is a more powerful communication skill than public speaking.”
After Chappaquiddick, her drinking worsened. A series of drunken driving arrests led to stays in alcohol treatment programs. Then in 2005, a passerby found her passed out on a Boston sidewalk in the rain, and she was hospitalized with a concussion and broken shoulder. Her children intervened, with Ted Jr. obtaining a court-ordered guardianship for his mother’s care.
Maria Shriver praised her cousins for doing “a great job caring for her, respecting her privacy, and loving her.”
“She courageously shared what it was like to lose a child, get divorced from a famous man, and carry on. Her life was challenging, but she persevered,” the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver posted in a eulogy for her aunt. “As a young girl, I marveled at her grace, her beauty, her elegance. As a woman, I respected her grit, her resilience, her perseverance.”
Joan Kennedy is survived by her two sons, nine grandchildren, a great-grandchild and nearly 30 nieces and nephews. Her daughter, Kara, died in 2011.
