For more than a century, the Kennedy family has shaped American politics, business and public life, building its fortune in banking, film and real estate before turning that wealth toward elected office and public service. Alongside the ambassadorships, congressional seats and a presidency, the family has also endured an unusual number of early deaths, from wartime combat and plane crashes to two assassinations. This is the story of both halves of that history, the service and the losses, generation by generation.
A Family Built on Ambition, Public Service and Loss
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy raised nine children in a household built on ambition. Joseph made his fortune in banking, film distribution and real estate, including Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, and used that wealth to fund his sons’ political careers. Rose, the daughter of Boston mayor John F. Fitzgerald, brought her own political lineage and a strict Catholic upbringing to the family. Their children went on to serve as a president, a senator, an ambassador and a Special Olympics founder, among other roles. That record of public life sits alongside a long list of early deaths across three generations, from combat and accidents to assassination. The chapters that follow trace both threads, the achievements and the losses, in the order they happened to the family.