Joan Bennett Kennedy
| Joan Bennett Kennedy | |
|---|---|
Joan Kennedy in the 1960s
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| Born |
Virginia Joan Bennett September 2, 1936 Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Residence |
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Manhattanville College Lesley University |
| Occupation | Socialite, musician, author, model |
| Known for | First wife of Ted Kennedy |
| Home town | Bronxville, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Ted Kennedy (m. 1958; div. 1982) |
| Children |
Kara Kennedy Ted Kennedy, Jr. Patrick J. Kennedy |
| Parent(s) | Harry Wiggin Bennett, Jr. Virginia Joan Stead |
Virginia Joan Kennedy (née Bennett; born September 2, 1936) is an American socialite, musician, author, and former model. She was the first wife of longtime U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.
Virginia Joan Bennett was born at Mother Cabrini Hospital in New York City. She was raised in a Roman Catholic family, in suburban Bronxville, New York. Her parents were Harry Wiggin Bennett, Jr. (1907–1981) and Virginia Joan (née Stead; 1911–1976). Her father was a graduate of Cornell University and later worked as an advertising executive. Bennett grew up with one younger sister, Candace "Candy," (born July 1938). She attended Manhattanville College (then a Sacred Heart college), in Purchase, New York. Manhattanville was also the alma mater of her future mother-in-law, Rose Kennedy; and her future sisters-in-law Jean Kennedy Smith and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. In 1982, Bennett received an MA in Education from Lesley College, now known as Lesley University. As a teenager, she worked as a model in television advertising.
In October 1957, at the dedication of a gymnasium at Manhattanville College in memory of another Kennedy sister, Kathleen – who had died in a plane crash in 1948 – Jean Kennedy Smith introduced Joan to her brother Ted, then a student at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville.
Ted and Joan were married on November 29, 1958, in Bronxville, New York. The reception was held at the Siwanoy Country Club. Their small family wedding was held just a few weeks after Ted's older brother, Senator John F. Kennedy, won his landslide re-election for his Massachusetts Senate seat. Joan had three children with Ted Kennedy: Kara Kennedy (1960–2011), Edward M. Kennedy, Jr. (b. 1961), and Patrick J. Kennedy (b. 1967).
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