Born two weeks after his father was elected president, Kennedy spent his early childhood years living in the White House until his father was assassinated. At the funeral procession, which took place on his third birthday, he gave his father's flag-draped casket a final salute as it came past him.
As an adult, Kennedy worked for nearly four years as an assistant district attorney in New York City. In 1995, he launched the magazine George, using his political and celebrity status to promote it. He was a popular social figure in Manhattan and the subject of intense media attention throughout his life. His death in a plane crash in 1999 at age 38 was highly publicized.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born at Georgetown University Hospital on November 25, 1960.[1] His father, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy, had been elected president less than three weeks earlier[2] and was inaugurated two months after his son's birth. Kennedy had an older sister, Caroline, who was born three years earlier. His parents had a stillborn daughter in 1956 and later had an infant son, Patrick, who died two days after his premature birth in 1963.[3] His putative nickname, "John-John", came from a reporter who misheard his father calling him "John" twice in quick succession; the name was not used by his family.[4]
Kennedy rendering a final salute to his father's casket on the latter's state funeral, during the former's third birthday
Kennedy lived in the White House during the first three years of his life and remained in the public spotlight as a young adult. His father was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and the state funeral was held three days later, on Kennedy's third birthday. In a famous moment, Kennedy stepped forward and rendered a final salute as his father's flag-draped casket was carried out from St. Matthew's Cathedral.[5] The photo was called "the most impressive...shot in the history of television" by NBC News vice president Julian Goodman.[6] Several photographers captured the moment, including United Press International photographer Stan Stearns (who became chief White House photographer during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration)[7] and Dan Farrell for the New York Daily News.[8]Lyndon B. Johnson wrote his first letter as president to Kennedy and told him that he "can always be proud" of his father.[9]
Following the assassination, the family continued with their plans for a birthday party to demonstrate that they would go on despite the death of the president.[10] They moved to the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. for a short time, and then to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where Kennedy grew up. In 1967 his mother took him and Caroline on a six-week "sentimental journey" to Ireland, where they met President Éamon de Valera and visited the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.[11]
After Robert was assassinated in 1968, Jackie took Caroline and Kennedy out of the United States, saying: "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country."[12] She married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis that year and the family moved to his private island of Skorpios. Kennedy is said to have considered his stepfather "a joke".[13] Onassis died in 1975 and left his widow $250,000 a year,[14] although she later settled with Christina Onassis for $25 million in exchange for not contesting the will.
Kennedy returned to the White House with his mother and sister in 1971 for the first time since the assassination. President Richard Nixon's two daughters gave Kennedy a tour that included his old bedroom and Nixon showed him the Resolute desk under which his father had let him play.[15]
Education
Kennedy attended private schools in Manhattan, starting at Saint David's School and moving to Collegiate School, which he attended from third through tenth grade.[11] He completed his education at Phillips Academy, a preparatory boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts. After graduating he accompanied his mother on a trip to Africa. His group got lost for two days without food or water while on a pioneering course and he rescued them, winning points for leadership.[16]
In 1976, Kennedy and his cousin visited an earthquake disaster zone at Rabinal in Guatemala, helping with heavy building work and distributing food. The local priest said that they "ate what the people of Rabinal ate and dressed in Guatemalan clothes and slept in tents like most of the earthquake victims," adding that the two "did more for their country's image" in Guatemala "than a roomful of ambassadors."[17] On his 16th birthday Kennedy's Secret Service protection ended[18] and he spent the summer of 1978 working as a wrangler in Wyoming.[19] In 1979 the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was dedicated and Kennedy made his first major speech, reciting Stephen Spender's poem "I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great."[20]
Kennedy attended Brown University, where he majored in American studies.[21] He co-founded a student discussion group that focused on contemporary issues such as apartheid in South Africa, gun control, and civil rights. He was appalled by apartheid when visiting South Africa on a summer break and arranged for U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to speak about the topic at Brown.[22] By his junior year at Brown he had moved off campus to live with several other students in a shared house[23] and spent time at Xenon, a club owned by Howard Stein. Kennedy was initiated into Phi Psi, a local social fraternity that had been the Rhode Island Alpha Chapter of national Phi Kappa Psi fraternity until 1978.[24]
In January 1983, Kennedy's Massachusetts driver's license was suspended when he received more than three speeding summonses in twelve months and failed to appear at a hearing.[25][26] The family's lawyer explained he most likely "became immersed in exams and just forgot the date of the hearing."[27] He graduated that same year with a bachelor's degree in American studies and took a break, traveling to India and spending some time at the University of Delhi where he did his post-graduate work and met Mother Teresa.[28]
Career
After the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, Kennedy returned to New York to earn $20,000 a year at the Office of Business Development, where his boss said that he worked "in the same crummy cubbyhole as everybody else. I heaped on the work and was always pleased."[29] He continued there as deputy director of the 42nd Street Development Corporation in 1986,[30] conducting negotiations with developers and city agencies.
From 1989, Kennedy headed Reaching Up, a nonprofit group which provided educational and other opportunities for workers who helped people with disabilities. William Ebenstein, executive director of Reaching Up, said, "He was always concerned with the working poor, and his family always had an interest in helping them."[31]
Kennedy earned a Juris Doctor degree from the New York University School of Law in 1989.[32] He then failed the New York bar exam twice before passing on his third try in July 1990.[33] After failing the exam for a second time Kennedy vowed that he would continue to take it until he was ninety-five years old or passed.[34] If he had failed a third time, he would have been ineligible to serve as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan DA's Office, where he worked for the next four years;[35][36] handling such matters as consumer fraud and landlord-tenant disputes.[37] On August 29, 1991, Kennedy won his first case as a prosecutor.[38]
In the summer of 1992 he worked as a journalist and was commissioned by The New York Times to write an article about his kayaking expedition to the Åland Archipelago, where he saved one of his friends when a kayak capsized.[39] He then considered creating a magazine with his friend, public-relations magnate Michael J. Berman, a plan which his mother thought too risky. In his 2000 book The Day John Died, Christopher Andersen wrote that Jacqueline had worried that her son would die in a plane crash, and asked her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman "to do whatever it took to keep John from becoming a pilot".[40]
Acting
Kennedy had appeared in many plays while at Brown and had done a bit of acting afterwards. He expressed interest in acting as a career but his mother strongly disapproved, considering it an unsuitable profession.[41] Kennedy made his New York acting debut on August 4, 1985 in front of an invitation-only audience at the Irish Theater on Manhattan's West Side. The executive director of the Irish Arts Center, Nye Heron, said that Kennedy was "one of the best young actors I've seen in years".[30] Kennedy's director, Robin Saex, stated, "He has an earnestness that just shines through." Kennedy's largest acting role was playing a fictionalized version of himself in the eighth-season episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown called "Altered States", in which he visits Brown's office to promote a magazine he is publishing.
George magazine
In 1995, Kennedy and Michael Berman founded George, a glossy, politics-as-lifestyle and fashion monthly, with Kennedy controlling 50 percent of the shares.[41] Kennedy officially launched the magazine at a news conference in Manhattan on September 8 and joked that he had not seen so many reporters in one place since he failed his first bar exam.[42]
Each issue of the magazine contained an editor's column and interviews written by Kennedy,[43] who believed they could make politics "accessible by covering it in an entertaining and compelling way", allowing "popular interest and involvement" to follow.[44] Kennedy did interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Billy Graham, Garth Brooks, and others.[44]
The first issue was criticized for its image of Cindy Crawford posing as George Washington in a powdered wig and ruffled shirt. In defense of the cover Kennedy stated that "political magazines should look like Mirabella."[45]
In July 1997, Vanity Fair published a profile of New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, claiming that he was sleeping with his press secretary (which both parties denied). Kennedy was tempted to follow up on this story but decided against it.[46]
That same month he wrote about meeting Mother Teresa, declaring that the "three days I spent in her presence was the strongest evidence this struggling Catholic has ever had that God exists."[43]
Kennedy in 1998
The September 1997 issue of George centered on temptation and featured two of Kennedy's cousins, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy II. Michael, a Boston attorney,[47] had been accused of having an affair with his children's underage babysitter,[48] while Joseph, a Massachusetts congressman,[49] had been accused by his ex-wife of having bullied her. John said that both his cousins had become "poster boys for bad behavior", and that he was trying to show that press coverage of the pair was unfair because they were Kennedys.[50] Joseph paraphrased John's father by stating, "Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine."[51]
Decline
By early 1997 Kennedy and Berman were locked in a power struggle, which led to screaming matches, slammed doors, and even a physical altercation. Berman sold his share of the company and Kennedy took on Berman's responsibilities. Berman's departure was followed by a rapid drop in sales for the already declining magazine.[52]
Hachette Filipacchi Magazines were partners in George. CEO David Pecker said the decline was due to Kennedy's refusal to "take risks as an editor, despite the fact that he was an extraordinary risk taker in other areas of his life." Pecker also said, "He understood that the target audience for George was the eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old demographic, yet he would routinely turn down interviews that would appeal to this age group, like Princess Diana or John Gotti Jr., to interview subjects like Dan Rostenkowski or Võ Nguyên Giáp."[52]
Shortly before his death, Kennedy had been planning a series of online chats with the 2000 presidential candidates. Microsoft was to provide the technology and pay for it while receiving advertising in George.[53] After his death, the magazine was bought out by Hachette,[54] but it folded in early 2001.[55]
Kennedy addressed the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, introducing his uncle Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. He invoked his father's inaugural address, calling "a generation to public service", and received a two-minute standing ovation.[56] Republican consultant Richard Viguerie said he did not remember a word of the speech, but remembered "a good delivery" and added, "I think it was a plus for the Democrats and the boy. He is strikingly handsome."[57][58]
Kennedy participated in his cousin Patrick J. Kennedy's campaign for a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives by visiting the district.[59] He sat outside the polling booth and had his picture taken with "would-be" voters. The polaroid ploy worked so well in the campaign that Patrick J. Kennedy used it again in 1994.
Kennedy also campaigned in Boston for his uncle's re-election to the U.S. Senate against challenger Mitt Romney in 1994. "He always created a stir when he arrived in Massachusetts," remarked Senator Kennedy.[60]
Relationships
While attending Brown University Kennedy met Sally Munro. They dated for six years, and visited India together in 1983. While at Brown he also met model and actress Brooke Shields,[61] with whom he was later linked.
Kennedy dated models Cindy Crawford and Julie Baker and actor Sarah Jessica Parker,[62] who said she enjoyed dating Kennedy but realized he "was a public domain kind of a guy." Parker claimed to have no idea what "real fame" was until dating Kennedy and felt that she should "apologize for dating him" since it became the "defining factor in the person" she was.[63]
Kennedy had known actress Daryl Hannah since their two families had vacationed together in Saint Martin in the early 1980s. After meeting again at the wedding of his aunt Lee Radziwill in 1988, they dated for five and a half years, though their relationship was complicated by her feelings for singer Jackson Browne, with whom she had lived for a time.[64]
From 1985 to 1990, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children and she also attended Brown University.[65]
The next day, Kennedy's cousin Patrick revealed that the pair had married. When they returned to their Manhattan home a mass of reporters was on the doorstep. One of them asked Kennedy if he had enjoyed his honeymoon, to which he responded: "Very much." He added "Getting married is a big adjustment for us, and for a private citizen like Carolyn even more so. I ask you to give her all the privacy and room you can."[69]
However, Carolyn was disoriented by the constant attention of the paparazzi. The couple were permanently on show, both at fashionable Manhattan events and on their travels to visit celebrities such as Mariuccia Mandelli and Gianni Versace.[70] She complained to her friend, journalist Jonathan Soroff, that she could not get a job without being accused of exploiting her fame.[71]
Kennedy wanted to become a pilot since he was a child. He took flying lessons at the Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida[50] and received his pilot's license in April 1998.[42] The death of his cousin Michael in a skiing accident[72] had prompted John to take a hiatus from his piloting lessons for three months. His sister Caroline hoped this would be permanent but when he resumed she did little to stop him.[73]
On July 16, 1999, Kennedy departed from Fairfield, New Jersey at the controls of his Piper Saratoga light aircraft. He was traveling with his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette. Lauren was to be dropped off at Martha's Vineyard and Kennedy and his wife would continue on to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts to attend the wedding of his cousin Rory Kennedy. He had purchased the plane from Air Bound Aviation on April 28.[74] Carolyn and Lauren were passengers sitting in the second row of seats.[75] Kennedy had checked in with the control tower at the Martha's Vineyard Airport but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on schedule.[76]
Officials were not hopeful about finding survivors after aircraft debris and a black suitcase belonging to Bessette were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean.[77] President Bill Clinton gave his support to the Kennedy family during the search for the three missing passengers.[77]
On July 18, a Coast Guard admiral declared an end to the rescue efforts.[78] Within the next two days, the fragments of Kennedy's plane were found by NOAA vessel Rude using side-scan sonar, subsequently prompting Navy divers to descend into the 62 °F (17 °C) water. They found part of the shattered plane strewn over a broad area of seabed 120 feet (37 m) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.[79] The search ended in the late afternoon of July 21 when high-resolution images of the ocean bottom[80] helped Navy divers recover the three bodies from the ocean floor. The bodies were taken by motorcade to the county medical examiner's office.[81] Divers found Carolyn's and Lauren's bodies near the twisted and broken fuselage while Kennedy's body was still strapped into the pilot's seat.[76] Admiral Richard M. Larrabee of the Coast Guard said that all three bodies were "near and under" the fuselage, still strapped in.[82]
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that pilot error was the probable cause of the crash: "Kennedy's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation."[83]
Later that evening, the bodies were autopsied at the county medical examiner's office and taken from Hyannis to Duxbury, Massachusetts, where they were cremated in the Mayflower Cemetery crematorium.[84][85] The families announced their plans for memorial services the same day.[81] The autopsy determined that the crash victims had died upon impact. Ted Kennedy favored a public service for John, while Caroline Kennedy insisted on family privacy.[86] On the morning of July 22, their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyerUSS Briscoe off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.[87]
A memorial service was held for Kennedy on July 23, 1999 at the Church of St. Thomas More in New York City, a parish that Kennedy had often attended with his mother and sister. The invitation-only service was attended by hundreds of mourners, including President Bill Clinton, who presented the family with photo albums of John and Carolyn on their visit to the White House from the previous year.[88]
Will
Kennedy's last will and testament stipulated that his personal belongings, property, and holdings were to be "evenly distributed" among his sister Caroline’s three children – Rose, Tatiana, and Jack – who were among fourteen beneficiaries in his will.[76] A scrimshaw set that belonged to his father, President Kennedy, was left to his nephew Jack.[89]
Legacy
A drawing of three-year-old JFK Jr. saluting his father's coffin, placed on a memorial wall for him shortly after his death
In 2000, Reaching Up, the organization which Kennedy founded in 1989, joined with The City University of New York to establish the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute.[90] In 2003, the ARCO Forum at Harvard Kennedy School was renamed the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of Public Affairs. Kennedy had been a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of Harvard's Institute of Politics for fifteen years and an active participant in Forum events. Ted Kennedy said the renaming symbolically linked Kennedy with his late father; Caroline Kennedy said the renaming reflected his love of discussing politics.[91]
In 2013, on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1963 presidential assassination, the New York Daily News re-ran the famous photograph of the three-year-old Kennedy saluting his father's coffin during the funeral procession. Photographer Dan Farrell, who took the photo, called it "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my whole life".[92]
^Maxwell, Paula (July 28, 1999). "Kennedy cremated in Duxbury"(PDF). Duxbury Clipper. Duxbury, MA. Archived from the original(PDF) on January 4, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
