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-
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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.
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