Joan Kennedy, Who Married Into a Dynasty, Dies at 89 [View all]
The wife of Senator Edward Kennedy for a quarter of a century, she both basked and struggled in the reflected glare of a political family in the spotlight.
Joan Kennedy, who married into one of America’s foremost political dynasties and spent much of her life wrestling with alcoholism while caught up in the tragedies and tempests that plagued the Kennedy family, died on Wednesday at her home in Boston. She was 89.
Her death was confirmed by Steve Kerrigan, the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. He did not cite a cause, saying only that she had died in her sleep.
The former wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, known as Ted, Ms. Kennedy was shy and reserved compared with her competitive, athletic and often boisterous in-laws. Ill-prepared for life in the reflected glare of Kennedy klieg lights, and haunted by her own family history of alcoholism, she found herself caught up in high-stakes politics, a faithless marriage and an on-again, off-again struggle with her own drinking.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/us/joan-kennedy-dead.html
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