From: mshaw@panix.com   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/joan-kennedy-dies-sen-edward-kennedy-   
   a3d8557ccb83fad3bdc0444a235e80c   
      
       BOSTON (AP) -- Joan B. Kennedy, the former wife of Sen. Edward   
       M. Kennedy who endured a troubled marriage marked by family   
       tragedies, her husband's infidelities and her own decades-long   
       struggles with alcoholism and mental health, died on Wednesday.   
       She was 89.   
      
       The former Joan Bennett, one of the last remaining members of   
       a family generation that included President John F. Kennedy,   
       was a model and classically-trained pianist when she married   
       Ted Kennedy in 1958.   
      
       Their lives would change unimaginably over the next decade and   
       a half. Brother-in-law John F. Kennedy was elected president   
       in 1960 and assassinated three years later. Brother-in-law   
       Robert F. Kennedy served as attorney general under JFK, was   
       elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964 and assassinated while   
       seeking the presidency.   
      
       Her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate and became among   
       the country's most respected legislators despite initial   
       misgivings that he was capitalizing on his family connections.   
       But Ted Kennedy also lived through scandals of his own making.   
       In 1969, the car he was driving plunged off a bridge on   
       Chappaquiddick Island, killing his young female passenger, Mary   
       Jo Kopechne.   
      
   (Love the passive voice here. So, the *car* killed her? Pff.)   
      
       Kennedy, who swam to safety and waited hours before alerting   
       police, later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.   
       Chappaquiddick shadowed him for the rest of his life, weighing   
       against his own chances for the presidency.   
      
       Joan Kennedy had three children with her husband, but also had   
       miscarriages, including one shortly after the Chappaquiddick   
       accident. She stood by her husband through the scandal, but   
       their estrangement was nearly impossible to hide by the time   
       of his unsuccessful effort to defeat President Jimmy Carter in   
       the 1980 Democratic primaries. They had been separated by then,   
       and would later divorce. One bumper sticker from the campaign   
       read "Vote for Jimmy Carter, Free Joan Kennedy."   
      
       Virginia Joan Bennett was born into a prominent Bronxville,   
       N.Y., 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 her exceptional beauty   
       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.   
      
       "Joan was shy and a really reserved person, and the Kennedys   
       aren't," Adam Clymer, author of "Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography"   
       said in an 2005 interview with the AP.   
      
       Her love of piano would be a trademark for much of her life.   
       She was known for opening her husband's campaign rallies with   
       a piano serenade and, after they divorced, touring with orchestras   
       around the world. Her family said she would combine her masterful   
       playing with a message about the transformational potential of   
       the arts and the need for equitable arts education.   
      
       In a 1992 Associated Press interview, she recalled playing   
       piano for brother-in-law Bobby when he ran for president in   
       1968. "He took me with him and encouraged me," she said. "He   
       had a theme, 'This Land Is Your Land,' the Woody Guthrie song.   
       I'd play that on the piano and everybody would come in, feeling   
       really great about everything."   
      
       "It seems like a long time ago, but it's part of my memories,"   
       she said softly.   
      
       In a statement, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island   
       praised his mother for her courage and talent.   
      
       "Besides being a loving mother, talented musician, and instrumental   
       partner to my father as he launched his successful political   
       career, Mom was a power of example to millions of people with   
       mental health conditions," his statement said. "She will be   
       missed not just by the entire Kennedy Family, but by the arts   
       community in the City of Boston and the many people whose lives   
       that she touched."   
      
       She also became one of the first women to publicly acknowledge   
       her struggles with alcoholism and depression.   
      
       "I will always admire my mother for the way that she faced up   
       to her challenges with grace, courage, humility, and honesty,"   
       Ted Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. "She taught me how to be   
       more truthful with myself and how careful listening is a more   
       powerful communication skill than public speaking."   
      
       After Chappaquiddick, her drinking worsened. A series of drunken   
       driving arrests led to stays in alcohol treatment programs.   
       Then in 2005, a passerby found her passed out on a Boston   
       sidewalk in the rain, and she was hospitalized with a concussion   
       and broken shoulder. Her children intervened, with Ted Jr.   
       obtaining a court-ordered guardianship for his mother's care.   
      
       Kennedy is survived by her two sons, nine grandchildren and   
       other 30 nieces. Her daughter, Kara, died in 2011.   
      
   --   
   Mark Shaw                                        moc TOD liamg TA wahsnm   
   ========================================================================   
                        "Anyway, we delivered the bomb."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)