Joan Bennett Kennedy was born September 9,1936 in Riverdale, New York as Virginia Joan Bennett. She was the daughter of Henry Wiggin Bennett, Jr. and the former Virginia Joan Stead. She attended Manhattanville College, a Sacred Heart Academy, along with the Kennedy daughters. Through them, she met her future husband, Edward Moore Kennedy.

Ted and Joan were married on November 29, 1958 in Bronxville, New York. They had three children: Kara Kennedy Allen (born February 27, 1960), Edward Moore Kennedy, Jr. (born September 26, 1961), and Representative Patrick Joseph Kennedy (born July 14, 1967).

While showing a public display of unity during Ted's failed 1980 presidential election, the marriage was falling apart. This had been going on for some time, due Ted's womanizing and Joan's alcoholism. On December 6, 1982, the divorce was finalized.

Since her divorce, Joan has become an accomplished musician and grandmother to her four grandchildren, from Kara and Ted Jr. In addition, Kennedy has worked as an advocate for the mentally retarded and for cancer research and was a supporter of the Pine Street Inn, a Boston-based homeless shelter, and Children's Hospital.

She has been arrested on several occasions for drunk driving. In 1974, she was arrested in Virginia. In 1988, she was arrested in Barnstable, Massachusetts. She was ordered to undergo treatment following a 1991 arrest in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 2000, she was arrested in Barnstable, and charged with DUI and failure to provide a license or registration. In the 2000 case, she was sentenced to 2 years probation.

In February, 2005, it was revealed that her children were granted legal guardianship over her due to her ongoing struggle with alcoholism. On March 30, 2005, Kennedy was hospitalized with a concussion and a broken shoulder after a passer-by found her lying in a street in Boston. Details of exactly what happened and how she ended up in the street are at present, unclear.

External links

• "Joan Kennedy arrested for drunken driving" (cnn.com)

• Kennedy's Children become her guardians