Family tree

First generation

Second generation

Third generation

• Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (1915–1944)
  • He died when taking part in an Operation Aphrodite wartime test as pilot of a modified B-24 Liberator drone bomber experiment which accidentally exploded and crashed in Suffolk England. For this act, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. He was single at the time of his death and had no children, though he'd been romantically linked to Edith Bouvier Beale, a cousin of his future sister-in-law Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, as well as Katharine Mortimer. (The latter reportedly rebuffed any more serious involvement with Joe Jr., claiming that his family was too active for her to contemplate marrying into.)
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963)
  • He was a U.S. representative, a U.S. senator and the 35th President of the United States. He was assassinated during a motorcade in Dallas, TX. The events surrounding his death remain controversial. He married New York socialite Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and had four children, of whom one was stillborn, one died soon after birth, and two survived to adulthood.
• Rosemary Kennedy (1918–2005)
  • Likely dyslexic and considered to be slightly brain-damaged from birth, Rose Marie Kennedy (her christening name) was rendered incapable of intelligible speech or caring for herself by a lobotomy, a popular neurosurgical technique of the time, requested by her father, Joe Sr., that was intended to cure her increasing mood swings and make her more manageable. The operation instead reduced her to an infantile state. She lived in a residential care facility in Wisconsin until her death on 7 January 2005.
• Kathleen Agnes Kennedy (1920–1948)
  • Known as Kick, she married a Protestant, the son and heir to the Duke of Devonshire, over her mother's strenuous religious objections. After being widowed when her husband, the Marquess of Hartington, was killed in action in World War II, she was killed in a plane crash in France with her lover, the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam.
• Eunice Mary Kennedy (born 1921)
  • She is best known as the founder of the Special Olympics, an organization she began in honor of her sister Rosemary. She married Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., later a 1972 vice-presidential candidate, and they'd five children.
• Patricia Kennedy (1924–2006)
  • She married Rat Pack actor Peter Lawford (1923–1984) and had four children.
• Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968)
  • He was U.S. attorney general in his brother's administration, later served as senator from New York, and was assassinated while running for president in June 1968. He married Ethel S. Skakel and had 11 children.
• Jean Ann Kennedy (born 1928)
  • She married Stephen Edward Smith (1927–1990) and had two sons and adopted two daughters. She later served as the U.S. ambassador to Ireland.
• Edward Moore Kennedy (born 1932)
  • Known as "Teddy" or "Ted", he's served as a senator from Massachusetts since 1962. Twice married, he's three children from his first marriage and two stepchildren from his second. On May 20, 2008, it was announced that he's a malignant brain tumor.

Fourth generation