Jean Kennedy Smith

Jean Kennedy Smith
Kennedy Smith with Victoria Reggie Kennedy in 2008
25th United States Ambassador to Ireland
In office June 17, 1993 – September 17, 1998
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	William Henry Gerald Fitzgerald
Succeeded by	Michael J. Sullivan
Personal details
Born	(1928-02-20) February 20, 1928 Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Stephen Edward Smith (m. 1956; wid. 1990)
Relations	Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (brother) John F. Kennedy (brother) Rosemary Kennedy (sister) Kathleen Kennedy (sister) Eunice Kennedy (sister) Patricia Kennedy (sister) Robert F. Kennedy (brother) Ted Kennedy (brother)
Children	Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. (born 1957) William Kennedy Smith (born 1960) Amanda Mary Smith (born 1967) Kym Maria Smith (born 1972)
Parents	Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Rose Kennedy
Alma mater	Manhattanville College
Profession	Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic

Jean Ann Kennedy Smith (born February 20, 1928) is an American diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to Ireland. She is the eighth of nine children born to Joseph P., Sr. and Rose Kennedy and is their last surviving child. Her siblings include President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, longtime Senator Ted Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy.^[1]

Smith is the founder of Very Special Arts (VSA),^[2] an internationally recognized non-profit dedicated to creating a society where those with disabilities can engage with the arts. In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama for her work with VSA and the disabled.^[3]

As Ambassador to Ireland from 1993-1998, Smith was instrumental to the Northern Ireland peace process as President Bill Clinton's representative in Dublin.^[4] She successfully advocated for the U.S. government to grant a visa to Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams which directly led to the IRA declaring a ceasefire in 1994. Irish President Mary McAleese conferred honorary Irish citizenship on Smith in 1998 in recognition of her service to the island.^[5]

Early years and family life

c.1953

Jean Kennedy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on her elder sister Kathleen's eighth birthday. She has been described as the shyest and most guarded of the Kennedy children. She attended Manhattanville College (at the time a Sacred Heart school, and still located in Manhattanville), where she met and befriended two future sisters-in-law: Ethel Skakel, who married her older brother Robert in 1950 and Joan Bennett who married her younger brother Ted in 1958.

Marriage and children

On May 19, 1956, she married Stephen Edward Smith in a small chapel of the Roman Catholic Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. The Smiths maintained a lower profile than some other members of the extended Kennedy family. During the early 1960s, they settled in New York City. Kennedy gave birth to two sons, Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. born in 1957, became an attorney and William Kennedy Smith, born in 1960, became a physician. The couple also adopted two daughters, Amanda Mary Smith, born in 1967, and Kym Maria Smith, born in 1972.

Career

Campaigning

Smith was intricately involved with the political career of her older brother John, working 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 like 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.”^[6]

Kennedy Smith and her husband were present at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, when Sirhan Sirhan shot and fatally wounded her brother Robert after he had won the Democratic 1968 California U.S. presidential primary.^[7]

Very Special Arts

In 1974, Kennedy Smith founded Very Special Arts, now known simply as VSA "the international organization on art and disabilities." VSA is a non-profit affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is dedicated to creating a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts. VSA annually serves over 7 million people across American and in 52 countries.^[8] Smith has traveled extensively throughout the world on behalf of VSA to advocate for greater inclusion in the arts for people with disabilities. Her book, Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists, co-written with George Plimpton, was published by Random House in April 1993.^[9] In 2011, Smith was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama for her work with VSA and the disabled.^[3]

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland

In 1993, Smith was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, continuing a legacy of diplomacy begun by her father, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom) during the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As ambassador, she played a pivotal role in the peace process in that region for almost five years before retiring the post. She successfully advocated for the U.S. government to grant a visa to Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams which directly led to the IRA declaring a ceasefire in 1994. 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.

Irish President Mary McAleese conferred honorary Irish citizenship on Smith in 1998 in recognition of her service to the island. 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."

Sinn Féin controversy

In 1994, Smith came to the forefront of American foreign policy when she championed the granting of a U.S. visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. Smith has been lauded for her work in the region, specifically for the courage she showed in supporting the visa for Adams which is widely regarded as a key step in the success of the peace process in the years that followed.^[10] Smith, Jean Kennedy. In her brother Ted's memoir, he described that "Jean was convinced that Adams no longer believed that continuing the armed struggle was the way to achieve the IRA's objective of a united Ireland," and that "It took only a couple of hours' conversation with Jean after we landed to discover what was the most important thing on her mind – the opportunity for a breakthrough in the Northern Ireland stalemate."^[11]

She was reprimanded by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher for retaliating against two foreign-service officers at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, Ireland, who had objected to her recommendation to the U.S. government to grant a U.S. visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and had sent in a "Dissent Channel" message.^[12] The Foreign Service Journal called the U.S. State Department's report on the matter "scathingly critical".^[13] Her management of the embassy came under criticism by the Boston Herald in December 1996, which obtained internal U.S. State Department memoranda and e-mail, for putting pressure on embassy staff to spend taxpayer money to refurbish her residence in Dublin.^[14][15] Smith was also the subject of an allegation of violations of U.S. conflict-of-interest laws. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release on September 22, 2000, announcing that she had paid US$5,000 in a civil settlement to resolve the allegations.^[16]

On September 17, 1998, seven months after the historic Good Friday Agreement, Smith retired as ambassador.

Philanthropy, awards and later life

Smith has won a number of awards for her work in Ireland and in the disability community. In 1995, she was honored as Irish American of the Year by Irish America magazine and a year later had an uncredited role in the film Michael Collins (1996). She was awarded honorary citizenship by the Government of Ireland in 1998^[17] and in 2007, Smith received the Gold Medal Award from the Éire Society of Boston,^[18] for her peace efforts in Northern Ireland and for her humanitarian work with disabled children. She has also received the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Margaret Mead Humanitarian Award, and the 1997 Terence Cardinal Cooke Humanitarian Award.

In 2009, Smith was honored with the Tipperary Peace Prize along with her brother Ted Kennedy for their support of the peace process in Northern Ireland. In February 2011, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom,^[19] the nation’s highest civilian honor, for her work with people with disabilities.

On March 15, 2011, Smith was inducted into Irish America magazine's Irish America Hall of Fame.^[20]

Smith, who holds a number of honorary degrees, serves on the board of directors of both the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the International Rescue Committee, and has also served on the Board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Her husband, Stephen Edward Smith, died of cancer on August 19, 1990. The following year their younger son William, then a student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., was accused of rape in Florida, but was acquitted after a highly publicized trial.^[21] Her 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 Joe and Rose.^[22] She attended his funeral on August 29, 2009.

See also

• Kennedy family

References

Notes

External links

• Jean Kennedy Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• VSA arts official website

v t e United States Ambassadors to Ireland Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Irish Free State 1927–1950 Frederick A. Sterling 1927-34 W. W. McDowell 1934 Alvin M. Owsley 1935-37 John Cudahy 1937-40 David Gray 1940-47 George A. Garrett 1947-50 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 1950–present George A. Garrett 1950-51 Francis P. Matthews 1951-52 William Howard Taft III 1953-57 Scott McLeod 1957-61 Edward G. Stockdale 1961-62 Matthew H. McCloskey 1962-64 Raymond R. Guest 1965-68 Leo J. Sheridan 1968-69 John D. J. Moore 1969-75 Walter J. P. Curley, Jr. 1975-77 William V. Shannon 1977-81 William E. McCann 1981 (acting) Peter H. Dailey 1982-84 Robert F. Kane 1984-85 Margaret M. O'Shaughnessy Heckler 1985-89 Richard Anthony Moore 1989-92 William Henry Gerald FitzGerald 1992-93 Jean Kennedy Smith 1993-98 Michael J. Sullivan 1999-01 Richard J. Egan 2001-03 James C. Kenny 2003-06 Thomas C. Foley 2006-09 Dan Rooney 2009–present