Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy: Irish Women of Massachusetts

(1890-1995)

Rose Fitzgerald was born in Boston’s North End, the daughter of famous politician John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald and Mary Josephine Hannon. She was raised in Dorchester and attended college in New York and The Netherlands. Considered the matriarch of America’s best-known political families, she and her husband Joseph P. Kennedy raised nine children in Brookline and Hyannis, including President John F. Kennedy, Senator and Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy. Her daughters included Jean Kennedy Smith, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy is part of BITA's 2019 Irish Women of Massachusetts series in celebration of Irish Heritage Month and Women's History Month.

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Irish Boston History & Heritage

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