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02.10.

John Francis Fitzgerald – grandfather of US President John F. Kennedy – 1950.

John Francis Fitzgerald – grandfather of US President John F. Kennedy – 1950.

Interestingly, John Francis Fitzgerald was once elected mayor of Boston, as the first Catholic of Irish descent to hold that office.



On October 2, 1950, John Francis Fitzgerald, the grandfather of the famous American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, died. The middle name Fitzgerald was given to Kennedy after his grandfather’s surname, which was also the maiden name of the president’s mother. John Francis Fitzgerald was a Roman Catholic and was born in Boston in 1863. By that year of his birth he was a peer of Henry Ford, William Randolph Hearst, and Richard Warren Sears, respectively wealthy American entrepreneurs.

John Francis Fitzgerald was of Irish descent, as was the Kennedy family to whom his daughter Rose (mother of President John F. Kennedy) married. Interestingly, in 1906, John Francis Fitzgerald was elected mayor of Boston, as the first Catholic of Irish descent to hold that office. In his old age, John Francis Fitzgerald helped his grandson John F. Kennedy with his first campaign to enter Congress. Interestingly, Kennedy later named the presidential yacht Honey Fitz, in honor of his grandfather whose nickname it was. John Francis Fitzgerald did not experience his grandson becoming president. Namely, he died on this day in 1950, at the rather high 88th year of his life.

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