Smith, Jean Kennedy, 1928-2020

<p>Jean Ann Kennedy, the eighth child and youngest daughter of Rose and Joseph Kennedy, was born on February 20, 1928 in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Sacred Heart schools in England and the United States, and graduated from Manhattanville College, where she majored in English. After her brother Joe was killed in 1944 in World War II, Jean was chosen in 1945 to christen the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a newly commissioned Navy destroyer named for her brother.</p>

<p>In 1956, Jean Kennedy married Stephen E. Smith, an executive in a transportation company founded by his grandfather, and they took up residence in New York City. Mr. Smith died in 1990. They had four children together: Stephen Jr., William, Amanda, and Kym.</p>

<p>Jean Kennedy Smith’s first experience in national politics came in 1960, as she traveled around the country for her brother, Senator John F. Kennedy, in his campaign for the presidency. She became a political figure in her own right three decades later, when President Clinton nominated her to be US Ambassador to Ireland on March 17, 1993. After confirmation by the Senate, she assumed her duties that June, serving until 1998.</p>

<p>Mrs. Smith had accompanied President Kennedy on his famous visit to Ireland in 1963, and the Irish government and the Irish people enthusiastically welcomed her return as America's ambassador. She took an active interest in encouraging a peaceful settlement in the long-standing conflict in Northern Ireland, and one of her principle achievements was in persuading the Clinton administration to grant a visa to Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, to visit the United States in 1994. The visit is widely regarded as a key step in the success of the peace process in the years that followed.</p>

<p>Starting in 1964, Mrs. Smith was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, which provides grants to promote awareness and advocacy in the field of mental retardation. She has also served on the boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.</p>

<p>In 1974, Jean Smith founded Very Special Arts, an educational affiliate of the Kennedy Center that provides opportunities in the creative arts for persons with disabilities. Her book, <i>Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists</i>, written with George Plimpton, was published by Random House in April 1993.</p>

<p>In addition to a number of honorary degrees, Ambassador Smith received various awards, including the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service from the American Institutes for Public Service, the Margaret Mead Humanitarian Award from the Council of Cerebral Palsy Auxiliaries, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.</p>

<p>Jean Kennedy Smith passed away on June 17, 2020 at the age of 92.</p>

<p>Jean Ann Kennedy Smith (February 20, 1928 – June 17, 2020) was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. She was a member of the Kennedy family, the eighth of nine children and youngest daughter born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, and was their last surviving and longest-lived child. Her siblings included President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.</p>

<p>Jean Ann Kennedy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on her elder sister Kathleen's eighth birthday. Kennedy was the eighth of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Kennedy. Her siblings included U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She has been described as having been the shyest and most guarded of the Kennedy children. She attended Manhattanville College (at the time a Society of the Sacred Heart school, and still located in Purchase, New York), where she befriended future sisters-in-law Ethel Skakel (who married Jean's older brother Robert in 1950) and Joan Bennett (who married Jean's younger brother Ted in 1958). Kennedy graduated from Manhattanville in 1949.</p>

<p>Kennedy (known as Jean Kennedy Smith following her 1956 marriage to Stephen Edward Smith) was intricately involved with the political career of her older brother John. She worked on his 1946 Congressional campaign, his 1952 Senate campaign, and ultimately his presidential campaign in 1960. She and her siblings helped Kennedy knock on doors in primary states such as Texas and Wisconsin and on the campaign trail played the role of sister more than volunteer, citing her parents' family lesson of "working together for something."</p>

<p>Smith and her husband were present at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, during the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy after he had won the 1968 California Democratic primary.</p>

<p>In 1974, Smith founded Very Special Arts, now known as the Department of VSA and Accessibility at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. VSA provides arts and education programming for youth and adults with disabilities. As of 2011, VSA's programs reportedly served "some 276,000 students in 43 states and 52 countries". Smith traveled extensively throughout the world on behalf of VSA to advocate for greater inclusion in the arts for people with disabilities. Her book, <i>Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists</i>, co-written with George Plimpton, was published by Random House in April 1993.</p>

<p>In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Smith the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, continuing a legacy of diplomacy begun by her father, who was the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom during the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As ambassador, Smith played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland peace process. As a demonstration of her ecumenical views, on at least one occasion she received communion in a cathedral of the Church of Ireland, an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion.</p>

<p>President of Ireland Mary McAleese conferred honorary Irish citizenship on Smith in 1998 in recognition of her service to the country. During a ceremony, McAleese praised Smith's "fixedness of purpose". Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern told Smith, "You have helped bring about a better life for everyone throughout Ireland."</p>

<p>On July 4, 1998, about three months after the historic Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998, Smith retired as ambassador to Ireland.</p>


<p>Smith won several awards for her work in Ireland and in the disability community. She was awarded honorary citizenship by the Government of Ireland in 1998 and in 2007, Smith received the Gold Medal Award from the Éire Society of Boston, for her peace efforts in Northern Ireland and for her humanitarian work with disabled children. In 2009, Smith and Ted Kennedy were honored with the Tipperary Peace Prize for their support of the peace process in Northern Ireland.</p>

<p>In February 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Smith the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for her work with people with disabilities.</p>

<p>On March 15, 2011, Smith was inducted into Irish America magazine's Irish America Hall of Fame.</p>

<p>Smith was listed as Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith in the credits of the 2012 movie Lincoln for portraying a "woman shouter".</p>

<p>In October 2016, Smith published <i>The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy</i>, a memoir of the Kennedy clan.</p>

<p>On May 19, 1956, Jean Kennedy married businessman Stephen Edward Smith in a small chapel of the Roman Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. The Smiths maintained a lower profile than some other members of the extended Kennedy family. The Smiths had two sons, attorney Stephen Edward Smith Jr. and physician William Kennedy Smith. They adopted two daughters, Amanda Smith and Kym Smith.</p>

<p>Stephen Edward Smith died of cancer on August 19, 1990.</p>

<p>Smith's elder sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died on August 11, 2009. Smith did not attend Eunice's funeral on August 14, 2009, choosing to stay with their brother Ted, who was ill; he died on August 25, 2009, leaving her as the last surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Smith attended Ted Kennedy's funeral on August 29, 2009.</p>

<p>Smith died at her home in Manhattan on June 17, 2020, at the age of 92.</p>