Joan Bennett Kennedy, author, activist, and the last surviving member of the "Camelot era" Kennedy family adults (albeit divorced from the late senator Edward Kennedy since 1982), died early Wednesday. She had turned 89 last month.
She had been a model with a flare for classical piano (the latter she put to good use following her divorce), she caught Ted's eye and they were married in 1958. However, it was a difficult marriage. Her personality didn't really fit in the with Kennedys, and, following the assassinations of her two brothers-in-law, the Chappaquiddick scandal in 1969, plus several miscarriages, and one of her sons' battle against cancer and losing a leg, she couldn't take it anymore. She tried, but it was too much. Following the divorce, she suffered from mental health issues and alcoholism. However, she was a survivor.
She had three children with Ted, with daughter Kara unfortunately having died in 2011. Ted died in 2009 of glioblastoma.
Snip:
Virginia Joan Bennett was born into a prominent Bronxville, New York, 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 she 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.
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