Boston, Massachusetts: Joan Bennett Kennedy, former wife of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), classical pianist, music teacher, advocate for arts education funding and pioneer in the cause of equal access to mental health and addiction services, passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Boston, Massachusetts on October 8, 2025 at the age of 89.
Mrs. Kennedy was married to Senator Kennedy for 24 years, and was the mother to his three children, Kara, Ted, Jr., and Patrick. Raised in a conservative republican home, her life quickly changed when she married Ted Kennedy in 1958, just as the Kennedys were accelerating their political lives. By 1962, at the age of 25, she became the youngest wife of the youngest U.S. Senator ever elected in the history of the United States.
Playing the piano instantly became her trademark while campaigning with the Kennedys, where she would frequently open the political rallies and warm up the crowd with her piano serenades. After her divorce from Senator Kennedy in 1982, she moved from Washington to Boston to escape the media spotlight, pursue a Master’s Degree in Musical Education from Lesley University, become a music teacher, and focus on her new sobriety. As a classically trained and accomplished musician, she regularly performed with orchestras all over the world, spreading her message about the importance of arts education funding. She became active with local Boston arts organizations, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Council for the Arts and Humanities. In 1992, she wrote the best-selling book, The Joy of Classical Music, to demystify the genre and make classical music more accessible to all listeners. Her belief in the transformational power of music guided her activism in the cause of equitable access to arts education in public schools.
Mrs. Kennedy became one of the first prominent women in America to publicly acknowledge her struggles with alcoholism and depression, a move that she felt was essential to breaking the silence and tackling the taboo of addiction in the 1970s. At the time, the disease of addiction was misunderstood by both the medical field and by a society that viewed substance use disorder as a personal failing and absence of will power. Her forthrightness, honesty and candor about her struggles, and her ability to successfully recreate her life in Boston, a community that supported her privacy and embraced her recovery, made her an inspiration to countless other women facing similar challenges. She devoted the rest of her life helping other people in recovery.
Joan Bennett Kennedy was born in New York City on September 2, 1936, to Harry Wiggin Bennett, Jr., a Cornell University graduate and Madison Avenue advertising executive, and Virginia Joan Stead, a homemaker, and was raised in nearby Bronxville, New York. During high school and as a college student at Manhattanville College, in Purchase, New York, where she graduated in 1957, she worked as a successful model in live television advertising, appearing as the Revlon Hairspray Girl on the $64,000 Question, The Maxwell House Coffee Girl on the Perry Como Show, and even won the coveted role as the Coca-Cola Girl on Coke Time with Eddie Fisher.
During her senior year in college, she was introduced to Ted Kennedy by his sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, at a campus dedication ceremony for a new Manhattanville College gymnasium donated by Rose and Joseph Kennedy in memory of their daughter, Kathleen, who had died in a plane crash. They married in 1958.
Joan quickly became an important political asset to both her husband, and her brothers-in-law, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, and played instrumental roles in all of their campaigns. In the 1960 presidential campaign, Joan worked nearly every coal mine plant gate across West Virginia, and traveled throughout the southwest and mountain states for several months, meeting with rural voters and making speeches at state fairs, rodeos, and schools. For Ted’s 1964 re-election campaign for the U.S. Senate, after Ted was nearly killed in a plane crash and was hospitalized for almost a year, Joan immersed herself in the critical issues facing Massachusetts and assumed his full appearance schedule, meeting with teachers, fishermen, factory workers, and senior citizens for 6 days a week over 7 months. She was widely credited for Ted’s huge margin of victory that year. In Bobby’s 1968 campaign, she would frequently take a seat at the piano and warm up the crowds with Irish songs, Polish songs and even Greek songs, depending upon where she was. She even hit the road with Woody Guthrie, accompanying him on the piano playing “This Land is Your Land” all across America. Even after her divorce from Ted in 1982, she continued to actively campaign for him.
Her musical talent was a unique gift which she loved to share. She made her orchestral solo piano debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1970. Over the years, she continued to appear in concert halls all over the world, performing a wide range of classical compositions under the batons of many of the leading conductors of the era, including Boston’s own Arthur Feidler, Seiji Ozawa, and John Williams, and made friends with many of the most notable figures in the classical music world. Her favorite composers included Chopin, Mozart and Debussy.
She is survived by two of her children, Ted Kennedy, Jr., and former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI), 9 grandchildren, 1 great-grandchild, and a sister, Candace (Candy) McMurrey, of Houston, TX. Her daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen, died in 2011.
Joan will also be missed by her nearly 30 nieces and nephews, whom she continued to spend summers with in Hyannis Port, where she has always remained a valued, loved and respected member of the Kennedy Family.
“I will always admire my mother for the way that she faced up to her challenges with grace, courage, humility, and honesty. She taught me how to be more truthful with myself and how careful listening is a more powerful communication skill than public speaking,” said Ted Kennedy, Jr.
“Besides being a loving mother, amazing musician, and instrumental partner to my father as he launched his successful political career, Mom was a power of example to millions of people with mental health conditions. She will be missed not just by the entire Kennedy Family, but by the arts community in the City of Boston and the many people whose lives that she touched,” said Patrick Kennedy.
“Joan was an accomplished pianist and possessed an impressive knowledge of the classical music repertoire. Her dedication to the Boston Pops Orchestra, and especially to the young people of Boston, will have a lasting impact. She will be greatly missed and will always be regarded as a member of our Boston Symphony Family,” said John Williams, Conductor Laureate of the Boston Pops.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend visiting hours on Tuesday, October 14th between 4 PM and 7 PM at the Carr Funeral Home, 220 Bunker Hill Street, Charlestown, MA 02129. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday October 15th at 11 AM at St. Anthony Shrine, 100 Arch Street, Boston, MA 02110, with a reception immediately following the ceremony. Her burial will be private.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Joan’s name to: The Father Mychal Judge Recovery Center, St. Anthony Shrine, 100 Arch Street, Boston, MA 02110.
Media inquiries can be directed to Steve Kerrigan at [email protected] and 617-279-7369.