Studying Time: 3 minutes
Joan Kennedy — who was married to Senator Ted Kennedy for 22 years — has handed away.
The demise comes amid a tumultuous yr for the Kennedy household, have been divided alongside ideological strains for the reason that appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
Joan Kennedy was 89 years previous.
Joan Bennett Kennedy, the primary spouse of US Senator Ted Kennedy, attends the dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate in Boston, Massachusetts, March 30, 2015. (Photograph credit score ought to learn JIM WATSON/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Joan Kennedy’s son shares information of her demise
“Mrs. Kennedy was a classically trained pianist, an advocate for mental health and addiction recovery, and a quiet pioneer in publicly addressing challenges with alcoholism and depression at a time when few others would,” the couple wrote, including:
“Her courage and candor helped break stigma and inspired others to seek help and healing. Her impact on the arts, mental health advocacy, her beloved Boston community, and the nation will be remembered by many.”
No reason for demise has been made public.
US Senator Ted Kennedy watches a bullfight in Seville along with his spouse Joan Bennett Kennedy, twenty first April 1965. (Photograph by Specific/Hulton Archive/Getty Photographs)
Joan Kennedy’s tumultuous life within the highlight
As soon as one of many nation’s most well-known political spouses, Kennedy struggled with alcoholism and psychological well being points, and she or he impressed thousands and thousands by going public with these challenges.
Whereas she stood by Ted Kennedy all through the notorious Chappaquiddick scandal that almost derailed his profession, indicators of the couple’s estrangement have been not possible to cover by the point he challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980.
A well-liked bumper sticker on the time learn, “Vote for Jimmy Carter, Free Joan Kennedy.”
Three years later, the couple would lastly divorce underneath the pressure of Ted’s quite a few public scandals and extramarital affairs
Born Virginia Joan Bennett on September 2, 1936, Kennedy labored as a mannequin in tv advertisements earlier than being launched to Ted Kennedy by his sister Jean in 1957.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) and his spouse Jill (C) speak with U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy’s ex-wife Joan Kennedy (L) throughout funeral providers for Sen. Kennedy on the Basilica of Our Girl of Perpetual Assist August 29, 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photograph by Brian Snyder-Pool/Getty Photographs)
After struggling a fall in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, Joan turned one of many first high-profile American girls to publicly acknowledge her dependancy.
Kennedy gave interviews to Individuals and McCall’s magazines discussing her struggles with alcoholism and reported that she’d gotten sober with the assistance of Alcoholics Nameless.
Reinventing herself after the general public dissolution of her marriage, Joan earned a Grasp’s diploma in Schooling from Lesley Faculty College in 1982 and later printed a e-book entitled The Pleasure of Classical Music.
She is survived by two of her youngsters, her eldest, Kara Kennedy, having handed away in 2011.
Our ideas exit to the Kennedy household throughout this enormously troublesome time.
