Michael L. Kennedy

Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (February 27, 1958 – December 31, 1997) was an American lawyer, businessman, and activist in Massachusetts. He was the sixth of eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. Kennedy also served as the manager of the non-profit organization Citizens Energy. He died in Aspen, Colorado, in 1997 after inadvertently skiing into a tree.

Early life, family, and education

Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was born on February 27, 1958, in Washington, D.C. He was named LeMoyne for Kirk LeMoyne Billings, the preparatory school roommate of his paternal uncle, John F. Kennedy, and a Kennedy family friend.<ref name="Kennedy laid to rest" /> He was five years old when his uncle was assassinated and ten years old when his father was assassinated. Kennedy spent his childhood between the family's homes in McLean, Virginia, and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Kennedy graduated from Harvard College in 1980 and subsequently earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1984.<ref name="Kennedys had pinned high hopes on Michael">Template:Cite web</ref> While in college, he was credited with recovering a stolen wristwatch from a thief while on a sightseeing tour in Colombia.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1985, Kennedy was admitted to the Massachusetts bar.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Kennedy married Victoria Denise Gifford, daughter of former NFL player and sportscaster Frank Gifford,<ref name="nancygibbs3">Template:Cite magazine</ref> on March 14, 1981 in New York City.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They had one son, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy Jr. (b. 1983); and two daughters, Kyle Francis Kennedy (b. 1984) and Rory Gifford Kennedy (b. 1987). The family resided in Cohasset, Massachusetts.<ref name="Kennedys had pinned high hopes on Michael" />

Career

A Boston lawyer,<ref name="Accident Kills A Kennedy">Template:Cite web</ref> Kennedy briefly worked for a private law firm before becoming chairman of his brother Joseph's non-profit organization, Citizens Energy Corporation in 1986, which provides heating oil and services to elderly and low-income households in Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Under Kennedy, Citizens diversified to provide discount AIDS-related medications to uninsured patients.<ref name="Kennedys had pinned high hopes on Michael" />

Kennedy co-chaired the Walden Woods Project, a non-profit organization to preserve Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1994, he co-founded Stop Handgun Violence, a Boston-based group that works to increase public awareness about the danger of handguns.<ref name="Kennedys had pinned high hopes on Michael" /> That same year, he helped organize his uncle Ted Kennedy's successful re-election campaign for the U.S. Senate against Republican challenger Mitt Romney.<ref name="Accident Kills A Kennedy" /> The conventional wisdom in Massachusetts was that he would be the next Kennedy family member to run for political office.<ref name="Kennedys had pinned high hopes on Michael" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1992, Kennedy, his wife Victoria, and his mother Ethel made a cameo appearance on the NBC sitcom Cheers in Boston.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Allegations

In 1997, allegations were reported that Kennedy was having an affair with the family's underage former babysitter, beginning when she was just 14 years old.<ref name="nancygibbs3"/> Kennedy took and passed three polygraph tests arranged by his attorneys, claiming he had not had sex with the Cohasset teen until she was 16, the legal age of consent in Massachusetts at the time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Soon after the scandal began, Kennedy and his wife separated.<ref name="nancygibbs3"/> Norfolk County District Attorney Jeffrey Locke decided to drop the investigation into statutory rape allegations because of a lack of cooperation from the babysitter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Putting Another Scandal Behind Them">Template:Cite web</ref> Kennedy and his older brother Joseph (who withdrew from the 1998 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, in part because of the scandal)<ref name="Kennedys had pinned high hopes on Michael" /> were dubbed "poster boys for bad behavior" by cousin John F. Kennedy Jr. in an editorial in his magazine George.<ref name="nancygibbs3"/> According to some Massachusetts political observers, the incident ended Kennedy's hopes of following in his family's political footsteps. According to Boston University professor Tobe Berkovitz, "I would have to think as both a political and a public figure, he is just finished."<ref name="Putting Another Scandal Behind Them" />

Death

Kennedy died on December 31, 1997, as the result of a skiing accident in Aspen Mountain, Colorado. He was playing football while on skis with several other members of the Kennedy family when, at approximately 4:15 p.m., he hit a tree. Kennedy was not wearing a helmet or other safety equipment. The family had been admonished by the ski patrol to cease the activity.<ref name=nancygibbs>Template:Cite magazine</ref> After the accident, Kennedy's younger sister Rory Kennedy tried to save his life by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until medical help arrived.<ref name="QuietKennedy">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After medical help arrived, Kennedy was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:50 p.m.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He was interred on January 3, 1998, in the family plot at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.<ref name="Kennedy laid to rest">Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Kennedy family
• Kennedy curse
• List of skiing deaths

External links

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