Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
| Kathleen Kennedy Townsend | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| 6th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland | |
|
In office January 18, 1995 – January 15, 2003 |
|
| Governor | Parris Glendening |
| Preceded by | Melvin Steinberg |
| Succeeded by | Michael Steele |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy July 4, 1951 Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | David Lee Townsend (1973–present) |
| Relations |
Robert F. Kennedy (father) Ethel Kennedy (mother) John F. Kennedy (uncle) |
| Children | Meaghan Maeve Rose Kerry |
| Alma mater |
Harvard University University of New Mexico, Albuquerque |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend (born July 4, 1951) is an American attorney who was the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Maryland in 2002. In 2010 Townsend became the chair of the non-profit American Bridge, an organization whose focus is to raise funds for Democratic candidates and causes. She is a member of the Kennedy family.
Townsend was born as Kathleen Hartington Kennedy in Greenwich, Connecticut, the eldest of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel's 11 children, and the eldest grandchild of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy. She was named after her aunt, Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington. It was not assumed that the girls in the politically oriented Kennedy family would run for office or become public persons, while she was growing up. However, after her uncle President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, her father wrote her saying, "As the oldest of the next generation you have a particular responsibility. ... Be kind to others and work for your country." Her family gave her the nicknames "Clean Kathleen", "the Nun", and "the Un-Kennedy".
Over the summer of 1964, Kennedy won four blue ribbons for her "excellence in horsemanship". On August 29, 1965, the fourteen-year-old Kennedy was somersaulted by her horse while competing at Sea Flash Farms in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. She was left unconscious and bleeding internally and was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, located fifteen miles away. Her family was en route to Hyannis Port at the time of the incident and was not located for another three hours. She was sixteen when her father was assassinated. The night he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel, Kennedy and her two eldest brothers, Joe and Robert, Jr., were being flown to Los Angeles aboard one of the jets in the Secret Service's presidential fleet named "the Jet Star". She spent most of her childhood in McLean, Virginia, and attended Stone Ridge School in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated from The Putney School in Vermont. She attended Radcliffe College, receiving her bachelor's degree in history and literature in 1974. She then studied at the University of New Mexico School of Law, receiving her Juris Doctor degree in 1978.
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