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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1960)
now-How of Politics Bred Into Kennedy by Close and Lively Family President-Elect 3 Generations From City Slums By BARBARA BUNDISCHU UPI Correspondent Franklin D. Roosevelt once addressed the Daughters of the American Revolution, with mischievous exaggera tion, as "fellow immigrants." But it is John Fitzgerald Kennedy who Tuesday has won the distinction of becom ing the first United States President directly descended from immigrants who settled in city slums. He is Just three generations, a little over 100 years, out of the east Boston shanties of potato famine refu gees. John Kennedy has made it on a winning heritage. The two grandfathers who scram bled from poverty to lace cur tain respectability set up a momentum of success. It was put under a new head of steam by the father who never quit fighting to prove a Boston Irishman could be as good, and as rich, as any proper, or Protestant, Bpstonian. Politics Bred by Nature The substance and know how of politics, and the ideal of public service was bred by both nature and design in his close and lively family. They learned politics in the cradle, talked it at the dinner table from childhood, and haven't stopped enjoying it. This is the family tree of Jack Kennedy's heritage: Patrick J. Kennedy, born in Boston in 1862, 12 years after his father fled impoverished Ireland, was a saloon keeper and ward boss who prospered, became a political power in the city and sent his son Joe to Boston Latin School and Harvard. John F. Fitzgerald, born in Boston in 1863, was the first native American of Irish de scent to become mayor of Bos ton. His daughter, Rose, was sent to convent colleges in New York and Europe. "Honey Fitz," ibouncy, gre garious political natural, lived to sing "Sweet Adeline" the night his lanky, shy young grandson won his first elec tion, to Congress. That was the night John F. Kennedy trounced out of the U. S. Senate the grandson and namesake of Henry Cabot Lodge, who had beat Fitzger ald in the same contest in 1916. Joseph Patrick Kennedy, son of Patrick, courted Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of Honey Fitz, for seven years and mar ried her, in 1914, in a cere mony performed by William Cardinal O'Connell in his pri vate chapel. Tore Through Barrier Joe Kennedy, two years out of Harvard, was well on his way to earning his first mil lion before he became .39, which was how he'd planned it. Then 26, he had the year before become the youngest bank president in the coun- - S 1" i Wo z V- ... S f P k t t;y c v v i "I ' t ' i " , f I- , -i 4 - : v . . . Vi C , .. i?. : r -:, .L Vr f v- A WINNING HERITAGE President-Elect John F. Kennedy, shown above with his with, Jacqueline, has won the distinction of being the first United Stales President di rectly descended from immigrants who set tled in city slums. (UPI Telephoto) try. In 1917 he took a top man agerial job with Bethlehem Steel Company's Quincy ship building yards. After World War I, he tore through the galling familiar barrier- "on ly Protestants need apply" was a staple of Boston want ads - to win a high post in a Boston investment banking firm. From there, Kennedy struck out on his own, for a profit able flyer in the motion pic-., ture industry and a career of stock market manipulation that was to see his millions safely through the 1929 crash, to make more money in whis key and real estate. Fortune magazine estimated his wealth in 1957 at more than $200 mil lions. He had moved his family to New York in 1926, partly be cause he needed a bigger base of operations, partly because he hoped to save his children from the discriminations and I prejudices that chafed him for all his success in Boston. Joe Kennedy had had little interest as a young man in following his father's political footsteps. He became, in J932, a supporter and contributor to Franklin D. Roosevelt's pre convention campaign. Roose velt named him first chairman of the Securities and Ex change Commission, an ap pointment some said was like naming Jimmy Walker to clean up New York. But he presided successfully over the outlawing of market practices that had helped to make him rich, and went on to become, again with notable success, the organizing chairman of the Maritime Commission. In 1938, Roosevelt named him Ambassador to the Court of St. Jame's. London, which had snubbed John Adams'- wife, took the phenomenal Kenne dys to its heart. Broke With Roosevelt But his two years were full of controversy. He broke with Roosevelt during FDR's third term campaign, taking posi tions that were branded ap peasement and isolationism in relation to the European war. Kennedy was reported to have entertained some hope of becoming Roosevelt's suc cessor. There is little doubt he intended that his oldest son wouldgrow up to be presi dent. 1 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who was to be killed in World War II, was bom at Hull, Mass., in 1915. John F. Kennedy arriv ed a year and a half later, on May 29, 1917, at the family's Medford Tribune SECTION D MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10. 1960 PAGES 1 to 8 Brookline home. Four girls, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice and Patricia, followed before the third son, Robert F. Ken nedy, was born in 1925, fol lowed by Jean and Edward F., last of nine, in 1932. Kennedy once told a report er he had set up million dollar trust fund for each of his chil dren so any of them "finan cially speaking, could look me in the eye and tell me to go to hell." It was in no sense an abrogation of parental respon sibility for their upbringing. Kennedy demanded his chil dren give the best to every thing they undertook and com pete to win with each other and the world, at work or play. When Jack wrote from prop school that he guessed lie had been fooling around too much and now planned to work a bit harder, his father replied: "I would be lacking even as a friend if I did not urge you to take advantage of the quali ties you have. It is very diffi cult to make up fundamentals that you have neglected when you were very young and that is why I am always urging you to do the best you can. I am not expecting too much and I will not be disappointed if you don't turn out to be a real genius, but 1 think you can be a really worthwhile citizen. . ." Quieter Than Joe Jack remained somewhat in Joe's vigorous shadow as he followed him through school and college. Quieter, more in trospective than his brother, Jack leaned toward a career in writing or teaching, and would perhaps have stuck with that choice had Joe lived for the political career he in tended. The father made it clear he hoped and expected Jack to step into the ambi tions of his older brother -"If I had been killed, it would have been Bobby," Jack said. But he made the decision to enter politics, a year after his brother's death, after long thought and on personal con viction. He had found a brief ex perience in newspaper work "too passive. Instead of do ing things, you were writing about people who did things." The other children consider Jack the most intellectual of them all. One sister has sug gested he became an omnivor ous reader, particularly of his tory, "because he wasn't strong enough as a kid to go in for athletics as much as Joe and the other boys." Older friends remember that when things were quiet in Patrick Kennedy's saloon, the owner could usually be found with a book behind the bar, reading American history. Quotes From the News BY UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Washington Republican campaign chairman Leonard Hall, on Richard M. Nixon's future: "Frankly, I can't imagine Dick Nixon not in politics." Washington Vice President Richard M. Nixon, to a crowd of 500 who cheered him and waved placards saying "Nixon in '64" after he landed at Andrews Air Force Base: "This is the nicest thing that has happened to me during the entire campaign." FILES DIVORCE SUIT lier Young, whom she mar Los Angeles IIIPII Actress ried in 1952. Miss Fontaine Joan Fontaine filed a divorce accused Young of causing her suit Wednesday against her "grevious mental and physi third husband, producer Col- cal suffering." Washington Sen. Mike Mansfield, (D-Mont.), pledging support for the Kennedy legislative program in 1961: "What he wants we'll do or break our necks trying." Hyannis Port, Mass. Robert Kennedy, campaign man ager and brother of John F. Kennedy, on the possibility of a TV "great debate" for his brother in 1964: "Certainly the president will not dobate someone who wants to be president." Activities Set at YMCAon Holiday Several activities are planned at the Medford YMCA for students. Tournaments in ping pong, checkers and chess with prizes for first, second and third place winners will be hold throughout the day in the boys lobby. In the gymnasium, there will be contests in throwing a football through a ring, foot ball entering for accuracy, baskets per minute, and free throws made out of 20 shots. The swimming pool sched ule includes a recreational swim for all members be tween 10 a.m. and noon, men and high school boys swim ming between noon and 1 p.m., grade school boys and girls recreational swimming between 1 and 3 p.m. and jun ior and senior high school re creational swimming between 3 and 4 p.m. Additional information may be obtained from the YMCA at SPring 2-6295. PRE- CHRISTMAS SPECIAL ONE 8x10 and 12 Portrait Christmas Cards $05 SPECIAL PRICES ON FAMILY GROUPS FULL SELECTION OF PROOFS MAKE YOUR APPOINTMENT NOWI For All Your Photographic Needs Its ... 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