John 'Honey Fitz' Fitzgerald, Grandfather of John F. Kennedy, Dies in Boston on October 2, 1950

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John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald, mayor of Boston and grandfather of President John F. Kennedy, died on October 2, 1950 at the Hotel Bellevue in Boston after a long illness.

At his bedside were his wife Josephine, two sons, John and Thomas, and their wives, along with his nurse. His daughter Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was in Paris and was notified, according to the Boston Globe.

Fitzgerald was an audacious, colorful politician whose melodious singing voice earned him the nickname Honey Fitz. Born in Boston's North End on February 11, 1863, he was the son of Irish immigrant Thomas Fitzgerald of Limerick and Mary Josephine Hannon of Acton, MA.

His daughter, Rose Fitzgerald, married Joseph P. Kennedy from East Boston, spawning the Kennedy political dynasty that dominated Boston for most of the 20th century.

Fitzgerald's political career happened quickly. He worked his way up from the Boston Common Council in 1892 to state senate in 1893. In the congressional primary held in September 1894, Fitzgerald beat sitting Congressman Joseph H. O'Neill, a popular Democrat who had held the seat since 1889. In the final election, Fitzgerald beat Republican challenger, Boston Alderman Jesse Morse Gove, winning by a mere 1,916 votes.




In his victory, Fitzgerald became "the only Democratic represented elected to the 54th Congress from New England," according to local newspapers.

Fitzgerald was also the publisher of a weekly Boston newspaper, the Republic, described on the masthead as "an Irish-American Family journal," and was also involved in real estate and insurance. Upon the sudden death of Mayor Patrick Collins in 1905, Fitzgerald became Mayor of Boston, and served terms in 1906-7 and 1910-13. One of his great rivals during this time was James Michael Curley, a fellow Irish-American politician who was ascending into politics during the same era.


A plaque in Honey Fitz's honor was erected in 1958 along the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway; the highway was later dismantled to make way for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. The plaque was reset and now sits along the John F. Fitzgerald Surface Road at the edge of the North End. 

Read more about John F. Fitzgerald at the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, MA. 

Learn more about Boston's illustrious Irish heritage by visiting IrishHeritageTrail.com.

 

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