Ted:
- Joan Kennedy aka Virginia Joan Bennett: Joan was born on September 9, 1936 in Riverdale, New York. Ted and Joan were introduced to one another in 1957 by his sister Jean's friend, Margo Murray. Joan was a senior Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. Joan worked as a part-time model for television ads and later became an accomplished musician, educator, and author. After a one year courtship, she and Ted were married on November 29, 1958 in St. Joseph's roman Catholic church in Bronxville, New York. The ceremony was performed by Cardinal Spellman and Jack Kennedy was the best man. Ted and Joan separated in 1976 and were divorced on December 6, 1982.
Ted about their wedding: "Joan wore a white satin wedding gown and carried a bouquet of white roses. My wedding gift to her was a clover-shaped pin that had belonged to my mother. We weren't able to take an extended honeymoon because of my law school schedule. We made up for that later. For the short time we had available, we accepted the invitation of Lord Beaverbrook to spend our honeymoon at his beautiful estate in the Bahamas."
Source: Edward M. Kennedy. True Compass: a memoir. 2009. pg. 126.
Joan about Ted: "When I married Ted in 1958, it wasn't as dramatic as it might seem -- it was more like marrying the boy next door."
Source: Roberta W. Coffey, "On a Campaign Trail for the Classics", Los Angeles Times, 11/26/1992, page 1.
Time.com about Joan: "From her wedding day, "Joansie," as Ted called her, found herself buffeted by the demands on a Kennedy wife. The hardest thing, she said shortly after her marriage, "is learning to keep up with the clan." Only years later could she admit: "I tried to be like the Kennedys, bouncy and running all over. But I could never be that." Even her repeated miscarriages seemed a special failure. "Subconsciously," said Joan, "I'd like to have been like Ethel and had one baby after another."
Source: "The Vulnerable Soul of Joansie", Time.com, 11/05/1979.
Joan after the Mary Jo Kopechne tragedy in 1969: "For a few months everyone had to put on this show, and then I just didn't care anymore. I just saw no future. That's when I truly became an alcoholic."
Source: Michele McPhee and Dave Wedge, "The Fall of Joan", Bostonmagazine.com, 08/2005.
Ted: "I realize that Joan and i were young and naive about what it took to have a successful relationship ... we never benefited from that critical but fleeting interval in which a young husband and wife get to know themselves and each other as a married couple ... We probably would have realized that we had fundamentally different temperaments if we had taken more time to get to know each other before we married, but we didn't want to wait. We thought we were in love."
Source: Edward M. Kennedy. True Compass: a memoir. 2009. pg. 183.
Ted: "I do not blame Joan for the demise of our marriage. Nor do I agree with some of the accounts that she has given as to the reasons for its demise. I regret my failings and accept responsibility for them and will leave it at that."
Source: Edward M. Kennedy. True Compass: a memoir2.009. pg. 184.
Vicki:
- Grier Raclin: Vicki met Grier Raclin, an attorney, in Chicago, and they married in 1980. They divorced in 1990.
Laura Blumenfeld: "Reggie met her first husband, Grier Raclin, a Washington telecommunications lawyer, while they clerked together in the federal district court in Chicago. Their 1981 church wedding, the talk of Crowley, feted 400 guests with a week's worth of parties. The couple divorced in July 1990."
Source: Laura Blumenfeld, "Victoria Reggie, Ready for Teddy; Her Friends and Family Agree. She's Perfect for Him", The Washington Post, 3/20/1992, page b.01.
