Everything about Kathleen Cavendish Marchioness Of Hartington totally explained
» For other people named Kathleen Kennedy, see Kathleen Kennedy.Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (
February 20,
1920 –
May 13,
1948), born
Kathleen Agnes Kennedy, was the second daughter of
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and a sister of
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and widow of the heir to the
Devonshire dukedom.
Biography
When President
Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Joseph Kennedy ambassador to the Court of St. James's, his daughter Kathleen spent a year and a half living in London. She was educated in London at
Queen's College. Beautiful and spirited, she was named the "most exciting debutante of 1938." In 1943 she returned to England to work in a center for servicemen set up by the Red Cross. Despite the opposition of her intensely
Catholic mother,
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy, known to friends as "Kick", married
William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, a
Protestant and the eldest son and heir of the
10th Duke of Devonshire on May 6, 1944. Other than her eldest brother
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., no one from the Kennedy family attended the marriage ceremony. Her husband was killed in action only four months later in
World War II, and his younger brother
Andrew Cavendish, married to
Deborah Mitford, became the heir to the dukedom.
Popular on the
London social circuit and admired by many for her high spirits — though more traditional members of British society found fault with her boisterousness — the dashing young widow eventually became the
mistress of
Peter Wentworth-FitzWilliam, 8th Earl FitzWilliam. The couple planned to wed after Fitzwilliam's planned divorce. Instead, while on a trip to visit Joseph Kennedy Sr. and gain his blessing for their relationship, Lord Fitzwilliam and Lady Hartington died in an airplane crash in
Saint-Bauzile,
Ardèche,
France.
Only her father represented the Kennedy family at her funeral. Her mother,
Rose, declined to attend supposedly because of Kathleen's intention to marry outside the
Catholic church. It is also said that Rose Kennedy also discouraged Kathleen's siblings from attending for the same reason. Rose apparently forgave Kathleen not long thereafter, and in
1951, she was reportedly delighted that her first grandchild,
Robert F. Kennedy's daughter,
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy, was named after her late daughter. However, the family requested that the child not be nicknamed Kick.
The Marchioness of Hartington is buried in the Cavendish family plot at Saint Peter's Church,
Edensor, near
Chatsworth in
Derbyshire,
England. Among the wreaths that covered her coffin was one with a handwritten note from Sir Winston Churchill. The gymnasium at
Manhattanville College is named in her honor.
Popular Culture
A
telefilm about Kathleen Kennedy,
The Girl On a Bicycle, is currently in production.
Further Information
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