February 20, 2013
KATHLEEN 'KICK' KENNEDY BORN 93 YEARS AGO TODAY
Brookline, Massachusetts (JFK+50) JFK's sister, Kathleen Agnes 'Kick' Kennedy was born on this day 93 years ago in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Kathleen was the second daughter & fourth child of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
Kathleen Kennedy
American Red Cross Volunteer
London, England
JFK Library Photo (1943)
Kathleen, who was called 'Kick' by everyone except her mother, attended Noroton Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Connecticut & the Hold Child Convent in Neuilly, France.
Kick was a London debutante in May 1938 when Joe Sr. was Ambassador to Great Britain & became a Red Cross volunteer during the war.
Joe, Jr., Kick & Jack in London
When Kick was 21, she got a job with the Washington Times-Herald where she became close friends with John B. White*.
*John B. White was the star feature writer for the Washington Times-Herald. He & Kick sometimes double-dated with Jack & Inga Arvad.
John was described as a 'brilliant polymath' by friends. A fellow newsman said 'everybody loved him.'
Mr. White died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1992. He was 81 years old.
At the age of 24, Kick was described as being..."a petite 5'3" American lass with bright gray-blue eyes."
It was also said that "she favored Jack with her reddish-brown hair" & "they had the same quick, self-deprecating humor, the same free-spiritedness & unharnessed energy."
It is said that "the vivacious Kick...inherited her charismatic personality from...Honey Fitz."
Kick, against the wishes of her mother Rose, married William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington, on May 6, 1944 but Billy was killed in the war on September 10, 1944.
Kathleen Kennedy died in an airplane crash in France on May 13, 1948.
Kick's funeral was held in London attended by her father who represented the Kennedy family & she was buried in the cemetery of the Church at Edensor in Derbyshire, England.
SOURCES
"Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life & Times," by Lynne McTaggart, Holt Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1983.
"The Kennedy Curse," by Edward Klein, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2003.
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