Page 241 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

John F. Kennedy

8th Cousin -

2 times removed

Common Ancestor

Father: William Davis
Bewdley, Worcestrshire, England
1617 - 1683

Mother: Alice Thorpe
Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay,
British Colonial America
1620 - 1667 Born: Died:
May 29, 1917 November 22, 1963

Brookline, Massachusetts Dallas, Texas

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35 President of the
United States and the son of wealthy businessman and
politician Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, a
philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather was a
Massachusetts state senator, and his maternal grandfather
served as a U. S. Congressman and was elected to two terms

as Mayor of Boston. He had an older brother and seven
younger siblings. All four of his grandparents were Irish immigrants.

In 1936 Kennedy enrolled at Harvard College where he earned a spot on the varsity swimming team. He
also sailed the Star class and won the 1936 Nantucket Sound Star Championship. As an upperclassman,
he began to take his studies more seriously and developed an interest in political philosophy. In 1940,
Kennedy completed his thesis, which eventually became a bestseller under the title “Why England
Slept”. In 1940. Kennedy graduated cum laude from Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts in government,
concentrating on international affairs.

After graduation, he attempted to enter the army’s Officer Candidate School. Despite months of
training, he was medically disqualified due to chronic lower back problems. His father then reached out
to the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who had been his naval attaché when the elder
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Kennedy had served as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (6 cousin, 2 times removed) Ambassador to the
Court of St. James, for assistance. In September 1941, John Kennedy joined the U. S. Naval Reserve, and
was assigned at an ensign to the staff of the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, D C. In 1942 he
attended Naval Reserve Officer Training School at Northwestern University and then volunteered to
enter the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center in Rhode Island.

In 1943 Kennedy contacted family friend and crony, Massachusetts Senator David I. Walsh, Chairman of
the Naval Affairs Committee, who arranged, much to the displeasure of his father, his reassignment to

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