Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington

Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy
Born Kathleen Agnes Kennedy
February 20, 1920(1920-02-20)
Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Died May 13, 1948(1948-05-13) (aged 28)
airplane crash over France
Resting place Cavendish family burial grounds, Chatsworth, England
Residence London, England
Education Queen's College, London
Religion Roman Catholic
Spouse William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington (May-Sept. 1944, his death)
Children none
Parents Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth (née Fitzgerald) Kennedy
Relatives see Kennedy family

Kathleen Agnes "Kick" Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (February 20, 1920 – May 13, 1948), born Kathleen Agnes Kennedy, was the fourth child and second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy. She was a sister of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy and widow of the heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire.

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Biography

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Joseph Kennedy ambassador to the United Kingdom, his daughter Kathleen (nicknamed "Kick" by her family) spent a year and a half living in London. She was educated in London at Queen's College.

Kennedy worked at Cissy Patterson's newspaper, the Washington Times-Herald in 1940, writing a column titled, "Did you happen to see . . . ?".[1] In 1943, she returned to England to work in a centre for servicemen set up by the Red Cross. Despite the opposition of her Catholic mother, Kennedy married William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, an Anglican and the eldest son and heir of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, on May 6, 1944. Her eldest brother Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. was the only member of the Kennedy family to attend the ceremony. Four months after their marriage, her husband was killed in action while serving in World War II. Her husband's younger brother Lord Andrew Cavendish, married to Deborah Mitford of the famous Mitford sisters, became the heir to the dukedom.

Popular on the London social circuit and admired by many for her high spirits, Cavendish eventually became romantically involved with Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam.[2] The couple planned to wed after Fitzwilliam's divorce, however, while on a trip to the south of France, Fitzwilliam and Cavendish were killed as the result of an airplane crash in Saint-Bauzile, Ardèche, France.

Only Cavendish's father represented the Kennedy-Cavendish family at her funeral. Her mother did not attend and, allegedly, discouraged Cavendish's siblings from attending as well.

Kathleen Cavendish is buried in the Cavendish family plot at Saint Peter's Church in Edensor, England, near Chatsworth in Derbyshire. The gymnasium at Manhattanville College is named in her honor.

Titles from birth

See also

References

  1. ^ Cissy, Ralph G Martin, Simon and Schuster, 1979, p 411
  2. ^ Bailey, C. (2007). Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty, pp. 406-419. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-670-91542-2.

Further reading

External links