The Tragedy that was The Kennedy's

It will be JFK's 50th anniversary next year.

So who was JFK and who were the Kennedys?

They certainly had an unfair share of tragedy in their lives.

Jacqueline had a miscarriage in 1955 and a stillbirth in 1956; and a son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, died shortly after birth in August 1963.

John's eldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., who was originally to carry the family's hopes for the Presidency, died in World War II, aged 29. Then both JFK, and his brother Robert died as a result of assassinations. Years after JFK's death, it was revealed that aged 30, he had been diagnosed with Addison's disease - a rare endocrine disorder.

Infamously known as the guy who shot JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Oswald was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby.

Edward Kennedy had brushes with death, the first in a plane crash in 1964 and the second as a result of a car accident in 1969. Edward died at age 77, on August 25, 2009, from the effects of a malignant brain tumor.

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born in 1957 and is the only surviving member of JFK's immediate family. John F. Kennedy, Jr. was born in 1960, just a few weeks after his father was elected. John died in 1999, when a plane crashed en route to Martha's Vineyard, also killing his wife and his sister-in-law.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of Eleanor Roosevelt's death in 1962.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in October 11, 1884.  She was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. Her husband was also rumoured to be a distant cousin of hers - Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She became an advocate for civil rights.

After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt became an international author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition (a response to the Great Depression: Relief, Recovery, and Reform - Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression).

She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.


Roosevelt was injured in April 1960 when she was struck by a car in New York City. She died in November 7, 1962 as a result of recurrent tuberculosis. Her funeral at Hyde Park was attended by President John F. Kennedy and former Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. At her memorial service, Adlai Stevenson asked, "What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many? She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world."