The untimely death of RFK’s granddaughter Kyle Kennedy, who has died at the age of 42, has renewed talk of a so-called Kennedy curse.
To be sure, tragic deaths have struck the Kennedy family for decades, as far back as World War II. Tragedies have now started to afflict the grandchildren of both John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. The cause of death for Kyle Kennedy is not yet clear. According to her obituary, she was paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury six years ago, but it’s not clear whether that led to her death in any way.
One tragedy that did not result in death: The lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy, a daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy and his wife, Rose. “After being persuaded that a lobotomy would help to calm his daughter and prevent her sometimes violent mood swings, Joseph Kennedy authorized the operation,” the JFK Library acknowledges. “The relatively new procedure, which at the time seemed to hold great promise, left Rosemary permanently incapacitated and unable to care for herself.” She lived to age 86.
Here is the full list of Kennedys who died too young:
Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy & Her Husband, William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington
According to the John F. Kennedy Library, Kathleen Kennedy “was born on February 20, 1920 in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second daughter and fourth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.”
She died in a plane crash after her husband was killed in combat.
“On May 6, 1944, Kathleen Kennedy married William ‘Billy’ Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington, whom she had met during her first trip to England in 1938. Billy, Lord Hartington, a member of the British army, was called up on June 13, four weeks after their wedding. He was killed in combat on September 10, 1944.”
Kathleen Kennedy, Lady Hartington “remained in England after the death of her husband. She had resigned her position at Hans Crescent a few days before her wedding, but returned as a Red Cross volunteer for a short period in the fall of 1944 at the Charles Street Club. After the end of the war, she briefly traveled back to the United States to visit her family, but returned to London to live there permanently,” the website says.
“Lady Hartington died on May 13, 1948 in a plane crash in France. She is buried on the Cavendish family burial grounds, in the Church at Edensor outside of Chatsworth, England.”
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
Joe Kennedy Jr.’s death was one of the earliest family tragedies. “Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., the oldest child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, was born on July 25, 1915. He attended the Choate School in Connecticut and the London School of Economics prior to entering Harvard, from which he graduated cum laude in 1938,” the John F. Kennedy Library says, explaining his promise.
“He went on to Harvard Law School but left before his final year to volunteer as a navy flier. Awarded his wings in May 1942, he flew Caribbean patrols and in September 1943 was sent to England with the first naval squadron to fly B-24’s with the British Naval Command,” the statement says. His military service “ended with his death on August 12, 1944.”
A fellow officer explained the mission that led to his death, saying, “Joe, regarded as an experienced Patrol Plane Commander, and a fellow-officer, an expert in radio control projects, was to take a ‘drone’ Liberator bomber loaded with 21,170 pounds of high explosives into the air and to stay with it until two ‘mother’ planes had achieved complete radio control over the drone. They were then to bail out over England; the ‘drone,’ under the control of the mother planes, was to proceed on the mission which was to culminate in a crash-dive on the target, a V-2 rocket launching site in Normandy. The airplane… was in flight with routine checking of the radio controls proceeding satisfactorily, when at 6:20 p.m. on August 12, 1944, two explosions blasted the drone resulting in the death of its two pilots. No final conclusions as to the cause of the explosions has ever been reached.”
John F. Kennedy
JFK, the president of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas.
Robert F. Kennedy
The U.S. attorney general and a presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at a hotel in Los Angeles.
Patrick Bouvier Kennedy
The infant son of President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, died two days after birth. He was born six weeks early and had underdeveloped lungs as a result, Vanity Fair reported.
John F. Kennedy Jr., His Wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and Her Sister, Lauren Bessette
JFK Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, perished in a plane crash flying to his cousin’s wedding. It’s believed that Kennedy suffered spatial disorientation in bad weather because he wasn’t fully instrument trained. You can read the investigatory report on the plane crash and its cause here.
David Kennedy
David Kennedy died of a drug overdose in 1984. He was a son of RFK and Ethel Kennedy. “He died at age 28 of a drug overdose at the Brazilian Court Hotel in April 1984. David Kennedy’s autopsy showed a mixture of cocaine, the painkiller, Demerol, and the tranquilizer, Mellaril,” according to The Palm Beach Post.
Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy, the son of RFK and his wife, Ethel, died of a head injury while playing football on skis in Aspen in 1997. “A nation knows his name, but few know the best of what he did,” Joseph P. Kennedy II, Michael’s brother, said at the funeral, according to The Washington Post. “Those of us who knew him know how much his three children meant to him.”
Saoirse Kennedy
Saoirse Kennedy was a granddaughter of RFK and Ethel. She died in 2019 at the family’s compound of an accidental overdose, specifically “acute methadone and ethanol toxicity in combination with other prescription medications,” People reported. She was the daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill and Paul Hill.
Tatiana Kennedy Schlossberg
Tatiana, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, died of cancer. She was a journalist, mom, wife, and author who penned a widely acclaimed piece about her illness called “A Battle With My Blood.” Her diagnosis “was acute myeloid leukemia, with a rare mutation called Inversion 3,” she wrote, adding, “When you are dying, at least in my limited experience, you start remembering everything. Images come in flashes—people and places and stray conversations—and refuse to stop.”
Maeve Kennedy McKean & Gideon Kennedy McKean
Maeve was the daughter of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the daughter of RFK and Ethel. Maeve and her son, Gideon, 8, perished in a canoe accident.
Mary Richardson Kennedy
Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of RFK Jr., took her own life. She “hanged herself Wednesday at the family’s 10-acre estate in suburban New York,” according to ABC 7, which reported that she and RFK Jr. were going through a divorce at the time. Mary Kennedy was 52. Mary and RFK Jr. had four kids together.
Kyle Kennedy
Kyle Kennedy died at the age of 42. She was the granddaughter of RFK and Ethel and the daughter of Michael Kennedy and his wife, Victoria Gifford. Her cause of death was not released, but she was paralyzed following a severe spinal cord injury.
Kennedy Family Deaths & Curse: Full List of Tragedies