Caroline Kennedy was born on November 27, 1957 and is the second child of John and Jackie Kennedy. The lives of the Kennedy family change dramatically when John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States in 1960. However, disaster strikes when ‘JFK’ is shot dead in 1963. After this, Jackie does her best to help daughter Caroline and son John Jr. where possible, out of the spotlight. Caroline is a good student and obtained her medical degree from the Columbia Law School in 1988. She works as a lawyer and also works as an author. She served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017.
Contents
- Youth in the White House
- After the death of John F. Kennedy
- Further career progression
- Private life and family
Youth in the White House
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy was born on November 27, 1957 in Manhattan Hospital in New York. She is the second child born to the marriage of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy , or Jackie. A year before Caroline’s birth, Jackie gave birth to a stillborn daughter named Arabella. In 1960, Caroline had a little brother named John Jr. A few years later, in 1963, Patrick was born prematurely and died two days after birth. John, Jackie, Caroline and John Jr. were living in Georgetown, Washington DC. When father John was elected president of the United States in 1960, the family’s life changed drastically. Caroline moves to the White House at the age of three.
Life in the White House is carefree for young Caroline. She attends kindergarten classes organized by her mother. She also rides her pony named Macaroni a lot. Caroline receives many presents from dignitaries . For example, she received a puppy from the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and her pony Macaroni was a gift from Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. On November 22, 1963, disaster struck when John F. Kennedy was shot dead during a parade in Dallas. On December 6, 1963, the torn family leaves the White House and mother Jackie and children return to Georgetown, where they previously lived. After a year, another move is planned as their home in Georgetown grows into a tourist attraction. The three move to a penthouse in central New York.
After the death of John F. Kennedy
Jackie tries to raise her children out of the spotlight whenever possible. When Robert Bobby Kennedy was also shot dead in 1968, Jackie panicked and feared that her children were also targets. A few months after Robert’s death, Jackie marries businessman Aristotle Onassis and moves with Caroline and John Jr. to the Greek island of Skorpios. The bond between the children and their stepfather is difficult. Although Jackie initially moved to Greece with the children, Caroline continues to go to school in the United States. Caroline returns to Skorpios during school holidays. In 1969, Caroline started The Brearley School, a private girls’ school in New York. She eventually graduated from Concord Academy in 1975. In the same year, Aristotle Onassis dies and Jackie Kennedy returns permanently to New York.
Caroline achieves good results as a student and presents herself as a budding photographer. She continues her studies and has part-time jobs in journalism. In the summer of 1977, she worked as an intern at the New York medium Daily News and wrote an article in Rolling Stone magazine after she visited his Graceland estate after the death of Elvis Presley. In 1980, Caroline obtained her bachelor’s degree from Radcliff College, part of Harvard University.
Further career progression
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, Caroline Kennedy started working as a research assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and later coordinated contact between the museum and media producers who wanted to use the museum as a film location. Yet, as a real Kennedy, Caroline also has blood running deep and she has an excessive interest in politics, although she does not aspire to a life in the spotlight. She quietly started studying at Columbia Law School, where she obtained her doctor’s degree in 1988. After this, Caroline starts working as a lawyer and as an author. Caroline Kennedy’s passion lies in constitutional law and she is writing a book about this together with Ellen Alderman called In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action. In 1989, the young lawyer created the Profile in Courage Award, which honors civil servants who have shown courageous political leadership. In addition, Caroline Kennedy has served on various boards over the course of her career, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Ballet Theater.
Caroline Kennedy took her first steps in politics in 2008. In January of that year, she expressed her support for presidential candidate Barack Obama and in June he appointed her chairman of the Vice Presidential Search Committee. Obama is eventually elected president. In 2012, Kennedy is one of 35 chairmen of Barack Obama’s national re-election campaign. When Hillary Clinton’s seat becomes available in the US Senate in 2008, Caroline Kennedy puts herself forward as a candidate to fill this seat. However, her candidacy caused quite a stir and she withdrew in January 2009. From November 2013, Caroline Kennedy has been residing as United States ambassador to Japan, where she was appointed by Barack Obama. She will retain this position until Donald Trump is elected American president in 2016. Shortly after his inauguration in January 2017, Caroline Kennedy leaves Japan. In December 2021, America will have a democratic president again and Joe Biden will nominate Kennedy as ambassador of the United States to Australia. In the course of 2022, this office will be definitively assigned to her and Caroline Kennedy will be sworn in as American ambassador to Australia.
Private life and family
While Caroline was working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, she met designer and artist Edwin Schlossberg. Caroline and Edwin got married on July 19, 1986. Her uncle Edward Kennedy, also called Ted, accompanies Caroline to the altar. Robert Bobby Kennedy, her other uncle, became her father figure after John F. Kennedy’s death. However, in 1968 another tragedy occurred and Bobby Kennedy was also shot dead. After this, Ted will play an important role in her life. Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg have three children together. Rose was born in 1988, Tatiana Celia followed in 1990 and in 1993 the family was completed with the birth of John Bouvier, nicknamed Jack.
Although Caroline and brother John Jr. were always close, the bond became even stronger after the death of mother Jackie in 1994. On May 18, 1994, Jackie Kennedy died of lymphoma at the age of 64. It is therefore unbelievable that a new tragedy would occur in July 1999. Brother John Jr. died in a plane crash with the plane he was flying himself. Kennedy and his wife were on their way to the wedding of his niece Rory when he lost control of the plane due to bad weather conditions. John Jr. was not an experienced pilot. After the tragic death of her brother, Caroline is the only survivor of President John F. Kennedy’s family.