Kennedy

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A family name of [[Ireland|Irish]] origin.  There are many famous Kennedys,<ref group=note>Note that the plural is '''not''' spelled "Kennedies."</ref> for example former [[SCOTUS|Supreme Court]] member [[Anthony Kennedy]].  However, the most famous Kennedys, even to those living in Ireland, are the Kennedys of [[Massachusetts]].  Those Kennedys include:

*Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.: Patriarch of the Kennedy clan. Alleged to have been involved with organized crime during [[Prohibition]] (but only long after the fact),<ref>[https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-biggest-kennedy-myth The Biggest Kennedy Myth]</ref> he later parlayed his fortune into several government posts, including being [[U.S.]] Ambassador to the [[United Kingdom]].
*Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald-Kennedy: Daughter of a Massachusetts politician, pushed her sons into politics.
**Joseph P. Kennedy II: Oldest Kennedy child, killed in a training accident during [[World War II]]. Was "supposed" to be president.
**[[John F. Kennedy]]:  35<sup>th</sup> [[President of the United States]] — aka, JFK.
***John F. Kennedy Jr: America's "Most Eligible Bachelor" until he got married, died in an [[aircraft|airplane]] accident. He is the center of many [[QAnon]] [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]], with many QAnoners believing that he's still alive.
***Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg: former U.S. Ambassador to [[Japan]].
****John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg: as of 2026 is running for Congress in New York's 12th congressional district.
***Patrick Bouvier Kennedy: Premature baby who died shortly after being born.
**Rosemary Kennedy: Possibly had bi-polar disorder but was [[lobotomy|lobotomized]] (as was standard practice in the 1940s) and lived her life incapacitated.
**Kathleen Cavendish (nee Kennedy): Married an [[England|English]] nobleman killed in an airplane accident in [[France]] in 1948.
**Eunice Kennedy Shriver: Wife of Peace Corps founder. Later founded the Special Olympics in honor of her sister Rosemary.
***Maria Shriver: Journalist, married [[Arnold Schwarzenegger|an actor]] who went on to become Governor of [[California|Kul-E-Forn-ya]].
**Patricia Kennedy Lawford: Married actor Peter Lawford.
**[[Robert F. Kennedy]]: John's Attorney General, later a [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] representing [[New York]] — aka, RFK, assassinated while campaigning for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.
***Joseph Kennedy II: Robert's oldest son, named in honor of his uncle. He was a Massachusetts congressman from 1987-1999, succeeding former Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill. Before and after his tenure in Congress he worked at a non-profit called Citizen's Energy, which distributed oil to low income houses. The main donor: PVDSA, the state oil company of [[Venezuela]]. He seemed to like [[Hugo Chavez]] but not so much his successor Nicolás Maduro.
****Joseph "Joe" P. Kennedy III, succeeded [[Barney Frank]] in the [[House of Representatives]], serving from 2013-2021, and became the special envoy to [[Northern Ireland]] under [[Joe Biden]]. He is Robert's grandson by Joseph and currently a rising star in the [[Democratic Party]].
***Chris Kennedy: Robert's son, leader of the [[Illinois]] branch of the family; businessman, philanthropist, and was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Illinois in [[2018 midterm elections|2018]].
***[[Robert Kennedy, Jr.]]:  Robert's son, a [[lawyer]] specializing in product liability and [[environmentalism|environmental issues]], and a co-host on the [[liberal talk radio]] program ''Ring of Fire''. Nowadays, however, he is best known for being one of the most prominent [[anti-vaccination movement|anti-vaxxers]] as well as his candidacy for the [[2024 U.S. presidential election]] as an independent and subsequent role in the second [[Donald Trump]] administration.
***Saoirse Kennedy Hill: Daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill and granddaughter of RFK. Died at 22 in 2019 of an apparent drug overdose.
**Jean Kennedy Smith: Former US Ambassador to Ireland.  
**[[Ted Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]]: The youngest of Joseph Senior's sons and a long-serving U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts. With almost 47 years on the Senate, he was the fifth-longest-serving senator in US history.
***Patrick J. Kennedy: A former congressman from [[Rhode Island]] from 1995 to 2011, when as a 29 year old nearly got into a brawl with a member three times his age over guns. Also had a DUI incident on Capitol grounds.

==See also==
* [[Jello Biafra]], lead singer of [[punk]] band Dead Kennedys

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:United States politics]]

Categories: United States politics