This article is about the late wife of President Kennedy's son. For the daughter of U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, see
Caroline Kennedy.
Carolyn Jeanne Bessette Kennedy (January 7, 1966 – July 16, 1999) was the wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Background
Bessette was born in White Plains, Westchester County, New York to Dr. William J. Bessette and Ann Messina Freeman, an administrator in the New York public school system. She grew up in affluent Greenwich, Connecticut, and attended St. Mary's High School, where she was voted an "All-Around Beautiful Person." After graduating from Boston University in 1988, she went to work at a Calvin Klein store in Boston.
With her height and cool blonde looks, Bessette occasionally worked as a model. She worked as a saleswoman at the Calvin Klein store in Boston before being transferred to New York, where she worked ostensibly as a publicist and met John F. Kennedy, Jr. The attractive couple became a popular paparazzi target, with gossip columns detailing where they ate and shopped and even covered the arguments they had. Photographers waited outside the couple's Tribeca apartment to snap photographs. Bessette was reportedly very uncomfortable with the media frenzy and the repeated comparisons to her mother-in-law Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She married Kennedy on September 21, 1996 on Cumberland Island, Georgia in a historic Baptist church, where their wedding was private and secret in an effort to elude the media.
Death
Main article: John F. Kennedy, Jr. Airplane Crash
On the evening of July 16, 1999, Bessette departed Essex County Airport in Fairfield Township, New Jersey in Piper Saratoga piloted by her husband to attend a wedding for Kennedy's cousin Rory in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Her sister, Lauren flew with them and was to be dropped off at Martha's Vineyard, before the couple continued on to their final destination. The plane never arrived at Martha's Vineyard, and its wreck was discovered four days later. Although the actual cause of the crash cannot be known, it is the official determination of the NTSB that a confluence of circumstances, including poor visibility at nightfall, Kennedy's relative inexperience in flying in these conditions, and his recently-healed broken leg, caused him to lose his bearings. The plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, approximately seven miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. All three passengers onboard were killed, and their ashes were scattered at sea a week later.
Legacy
In 2005, Bessette's close friend Carole Radziwill published her memoirs, containing fond memories of John, Carolyn, and Lauren, including her memories of the plane crash that took place just weeks before her husband's death from cancer. Before marrying her husband, Bessette was in a relationship with model Michael Bergin, who wrote a memoir about the couple's relationship The Other Man, which was published in 2004.
See also
External links
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Kennedy family |
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Joseph P. Kennedy
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Rose Fitzgerald
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Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (1915–1944)
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John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963)
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Rosemary Kennedy (1918–2005)
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Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish (1920–1948)
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Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921–present)
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Patricia Kennedy Lawford (1924–2006)
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Robert Francis Kennedy (1925–1968)
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Jean Kennedy Smith (1928–present)
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Edward Moore Kennedy (1932–present)
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| See also: The Kennedy Curse • The Kennedy Compound • Hickory Hill • The Merchandise Mart • Descendants • Political line |
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