Joan Bennett Kennedy, the former wife of the late Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, died in her sleep Wednesday at her Boston home, officials said. She was 89.
The state Democratic Party confirmed Joan Kennedy’s death in a statement, which included remarks from her two surviving children, Ted Kennedy Jr. and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy. Her daughter, Kara Kennedy, died in 2011.
“I will always admire my mother for the way that she faced up to her challenges with grace, courage, humility, and honesty,” said Ted Kennedy Jr. “She taught me how to be more truthful with myself and how careful listening is a more powerful communication skill than public speaking.”
His words were echoed by his younger brother.
“Besides being a loving mother, talented musician, and instrumental partner to my father as he launched his successful political career, Mom was a powerful example to millions of people with mental health conditions,” Patrick Kennedy said. “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.”
Joan and Ted Kennedy married in 1958, according to the statement. The couple divorced in 1982.
Joan Kennedy and Ted Kennedy in Boston in 1979.Janet Knott/Globe Staff
Joan Kennedy was a classical pianist, music teacher, and advocate for mental health and addiction services, officials said.
She performed with renowned orchestras across the world and also pushed for youth access to arts education, according to the statement.
She published a best-selling book in 1992 entitled “The Joy of Classical Music,” and she was active with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Council for the Arts and Humanities, the release said.
Joan and Ted Kennedy and their son Patrick Kennedy, shortly after his birth in 1967.Joe Dennehy/Globe Staff
“Joan was an accomplished pianist and possessed an impressive knowledge of the classical music repertoire,” John Williams, conductor laureate of the Boston Pops, said in the statement. “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.”
In the 1970s, she became one of “the first prominent women in America” to publicly acknowledge her struggles with alcoholism and depression, the statement noted.
“Her honesty and candor, 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,” the release said.
Joan Kennedy read to patients in the pediatrics ward of the Boston City Hospital in November 1991.Janet Knott/Globe Staff
She is survived by her two sons, nine grandchildren, her sister, Candace “Candy” McMurrey, of Houston, one great-grandchild, and many nieces and nephews, officials said.
Funeral information and calling hours will be posted soon on the website of the Carr Funeral Home in Charlestown, the statement said.
Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Joan sat with President Jimmy Carter at the John F. Kennedy Library dedication in 1979. Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff
Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].
