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 stamped the Kennedy family, died on Wednesday at her home in Boston. She was 89.
Her death was announced by Steve Kerrigan, the chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
The former wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who was 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.
For stretches at a time, however, she registered numerous triumphs. An accomplished pianist, she gave a recital with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1970 that won standing ovations and stellar reviews. Under the baton of Arthur Fiedler, she narrated stories, like Tchaikovsky’s “Peter and the Wolf,” accompanied by the Boston Pops. She published a book, “The Joy of Classical Music: A Guide for You and Your Family” (1992), edited by her sister-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. And she devoted her later years to raising money for nonprofit organizations and charities in Boston.
But she was never interested in politics, the Kennedy family business. Her introduction to it came when her husband campaigned for and won a special election to the Senate in 1962, when he was just 30 and she was 27. By then, his brother John was president, and his brother Robert was attorney general.
Within a few years, though, with the assassinations of John and Robert, pressure built on Senator Kennedy to take up their mantle despite his family’s concern for his safety. He became less discreet about his infidelities and excessive drinking, and Joan, too, turned increasingly to alcohol.
She stood by her husband through considerable drama, most notably in 1969, when he drove off a one-lane bridge in Chappaquiddick, Mass., in an accident that killed his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old former secretary to Robert F. Kennedy, when he was a senator from New York.
Ms. Kennedy, who was pregnant at the time, had already suffered two miscarriages and was on strict bed rest. With the Chappaquiddick drama threatening her husband’s political future, she accompanied him to Ms. Kopechne’s funeral and to court, where he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.
Shortly afterward, she miscarried again. By then, she said, she had given in to the bottle.
“For a few months everyone had to put on this show, and then I just didn’t care anymore,” Ms. Kennedy told Laurence Leamer, author of “The Kennedy Women” (1996). “That’s when I truly became an alcoholic.”
She and Mr. Kennedy had effectively separated before he ran for president unsuccessfully in 1980, but they kept up a united front during his campaign for the Democratic nomination; after he dropped out, the marriage officially dissolved.
Her struggle with alcohol had become public with her repeated arrests on charges of drunken driving, starting in 1974. With her third arrest, in 1991, she was ordered into a rehabilitation program, the first of several times.
Over time, she had consumed enough alcohol to develop serious kidney problems and to have her children become her guardians.
A full obituary will appear soon.
Ash Wu contributed reporting.
Katharine Q. Seelye, an obituary writer, was a reporter for The Times for 28 years. She previously covered national politics and New England.
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