David Kennedy

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This article is about the son of Robert F. Kennedy. For other people with this name, see David Kennedy (disambiguation).
David Kennedy

Kennedy in 1968
Born David Anthony Kennedy
(1955-06-15)June 15, 1955
Washington, D.C.
Died April 25, 1984(1984-04-25) (aged 28)
Palm Beach, Florida
Political party
 Democratic
Religion Roman Catholic
Parents Robert and Ethel Kennedy

David Anthony Kennedy (June 15, 1955 – April 25, 1984) was the fourth of eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy.[1][2][3]

Life

On June 4, 1968, eleven days before his 13th birthday, Kennedy nearly drowned while he and his siblings were swimming in the Pacific Ocean near the Malibu, California beach house of a Kennedy family friend, Hollywood film director John Frankenheimer.[citation needed] Kennedy had been knocked over by a wave and was trapped on the bottom by the undertow. His father dove under the water and rescued him, scraping and bruising his own forehead in the process. Frankenheimer gave Senator Kennedy theatrical makeup to hide the bruise while appearing on television hours later.[citation needed] At just after Midnight on June 5, David watched on TV as his father claimed victory in the California presidential primary election; the 12-year-old then watched as the same broadcast reported his father's assassination moments later. [4]The event left an emotional scar on David and he began recreational drug use shortly thereafter.[citation needed]

A 1973 Jeep accident left Kennedy's then girlfriend, Pamela Kelley, paralyzed. His oldest brother, Joseph Kennedy II, had been driving the Jeep and was charged with reckless driving. Kennedy sustained a fractured vertebrae and became addicted to the painkillers he was given in the hospital.[citation needed] He began using heroin intravenously that autumn in his final year at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts.[citation needed] Kennedy spent two years as a student at Harvard University, pursuing a major in American history before dropping out in 1976. He had ambitions of becoming a journalist and spent several months as an intern for a Tennessee newspaper in 1974. Some staff there were impressed with his aptitude.[5] In 1974 Kennedy and his siblings were the target of kidnap threats, and were given Secret Service protection.[6]

After dropping out of Harvard, Kennedy alternated his time between the Kennedy family home "Hickory Hill" in McLean, Virginia, and New York until February 1979, when he moved to New York City full-time. He was frequently seen in the Manhattan discos with a succession of attractive women. His most notable involvement was with British actress Rachel Ward, whom he met in one such establishment in 1979. In his memoir Symptoms of withdrawal: a memoir of snapshots and redemption, cousin Christopher Kennedy Lawford describes Kennedy as his best friend, and devotes much of chapter 10 to their relationship with one another and the extended Kennedy family.[7]

Health problems and death

Kennedy was diagnosed twice with bacterial endocarditis, an inflammation of the heart often associated with the use of intravenous drugs. As well as experiencing drug overdoses in 1976 and 1978, he also had some skirmishes with the law, including speeding offenses and a DUI. Kennedy spent 6 weeks in Sussex, England, under the care of Dr. Margaret Patterson, an addiction specialist, during the autumn of 1978.[citation needed] Kennedy later moved to Sacramento, California, while under the guidance of a drug counselor.[citation needed] In the early 1980s, Kennedy became clean and sober and found occasional work through family contacts.[citation needed] Considering a return to Harvard, he moved back east in the autumn of 1982, followed by a 6-month stint with the Boston based Atlantic Monthly magazine. Kennedy spent time in Spofford Hall, a rehab facility in New Hampshire in September 1983 in order to curb his drinking before starting school again. While he completed one semester, a return to drug use again forced him to leave.[citation needed] Kennedy remained in Boston with his girlfriend, fashion photographer Paula Sculley.

In the spring of 1984, Kennedy completed a month-long stay at St. Mary's Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Minneapolis. He flew down to Palm Beach, Florida, on April 19 for Easter, where several members of the Kennedy family had gathered. Kennedy checked into room 107 of the Brazilian Court hotel and spent the next few days partying. On April 25th, at the insistence of concerned family members, staff went to check on his welfare and found him dead on the floor of his suite from an overdose of cocaine, Demerol, and Mellaril.[1][8] Kennedy was interred in the family plot at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was the first of four Kennedy grandchildren reaching adulthood to die prematurely. He was later followed in death by his younger brother Michael and cousins John, Jr. and Kara.

See also

  • Kennedy Curse

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lance Morrow; Hays Gorey; Joseph N. Boyce (1984-05-07). "The One Caught in the Undertow". Time magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-09-04. 
  2. ↑ Bill Adler (1980-11-26). "David Kennedy couldn't shake guilt feelings". The Ledger. Retrieved 2009-09-05. 
  3. ↑ Vivian Marino (1984-05-16). "Two arrested in the death of David Kennedy". The Evening Independent. Retrieved 2009-09-05. 
  4. ↑ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20074651,00.html
  5. ↑ Jonathan Slevin and Maureen Spagnolo (1990). Kennedys: The Next Generation. National Press. ISBN 0-915765-79-9. 
  6. ↑ "Kennedy Children Given U.S. Guard: Move Came After Threats on Late Senator's Family". Los Angeles Times. 1974-09-27. Archived from the original on 2009-09-04. 
  7. ↑ Christopher Kennedy Lawford (2005-09-15). Symptoms of withdrawal: a memoir of snapshots and redemption. Smooch. ISBN 978-0-06-073248-6. Retrieved 2009-09-05. 
  8. ↑ Stuart, Reginald (May 17, 1984). "3 Drugs are Blamed in David Kennedy Case". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2009-09-04. Retrieved September 1, 2009. 

External links

  • David Kennedy website
  • David Kennedy at Find a Grave
  • Growing Up Kennedy: The Third Generation Comes of Age by Harrison Rainie and John Quinn, 1983
  • Life special issue, The Kennedys: The Third Generation, 1997.
  • RFK: A Candid Biography of Bobby Kennedy by C. David Heymann (Pages 516 - 521), 1998
  • Searching For The Impossible: The Quest To End All Addiction by Dr. Meg Patterson (pages 152-163), 2006.
  • The Kennedys: An American Drama by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, 1984.
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