(WWLP) – The death of 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, is just the latest tragedy to strike the Kennedy family.
Here’s a timeline that stretches back almost 80 years:
1941 – Rosemary Kennedy was often believed to have been intellectually disabled.
Her father, Joseph Sr., arranged in secret for her to undergo alobotomy.
The lobotomy instead left her unable to walk or speak well, and as a result, Rosemary remained institutionalized until her death in 2005.
August 12, 1944 – Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died when his plane exploded over East Suffolk, England during World War II.
May 13, 1948 – Kathleen Cavendish, daughter of Joseph Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy, died in a plane crash in France.
August 9, 1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy, died of infant respiratory distress syndrome two days after his premature birth.
November 22, 1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
June 19, 1964 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was involved in a plane crash in Southampton, Massachusetts which one of his aides and the pilot were killed.
Kennedy spent weeks in a hospital recovering from a broken back, apunctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
June 5, 1968 – U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles following his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.
July 18, 1969 – In the Chappaquiddick incident, Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, which fatally trapped his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.
Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of theaccident causing personal injury.
November 17, 1973 – Ted Kennedy’s son, 12-year-old Edward M. Kennedy Jr. had to have his right leg surgically amputated due to bone cancer.
April 25, 1984 – David A. Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, died of a cocaine overdose in a Palm Beach, Florida hotel room.
April 1, 1991 – William Kennedy Smith, son of Jean Kennedy Smith, was arrested and charged with the rape of a young woman at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Smith was acquitted.
December 31, 1997 – Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, died in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado.
July 16, 1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr. died when his plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. His wife and sister-in-law also died.
September 16, 2011 – Kara Kennedy, daughter of Ted Kennedy, died of a heart attack while exercising in a Washington, D.C. health club at age 51.
May 16, 2012 – Mary Richardson Kennedy committed suicide on the grounds of her home in Bedford, Westchester County, New York.
August 1, 2019 – 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill, granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead of a suspected drug overdose at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
