Who was Ted Kennedy ? Joan Kennedy lost her ex-husband 16 years before her death 

Edward Moore Kennedy, remembered simply as Ted Kennedy, was the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy, a man who spent nearly half a century in the Senate, carrying both power and loss on his shoulders. Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2008. A year later, on August 25, 2009, he died at his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His grave now rests in Arlington National Cemetery, beside his brothers.

With the recent news of Joan Kennedy’s death, memories of a long and complicated chapter in American politics have surfaced again. She had once been married to Ted Kennedy. Joan Kennedy, born Joan Bennett in Bronxville, New York, led a distinctly different public life. Before becoming a Kennedy, she played piano, modeled for television ads, and tried to stay grounded in her own world.

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Ted Kennedy leaves a lasting mark on Civil Rights and American politics:

Senator Ted Kennedy's career in the Senate spanned 46 years, during which he championed civil rights and other causes that shaped modern America. On NPR’s TELL ME MORE podcast, published August 26, 2009, Jennifer Ludden reflected on Kennedy’s legacy:

“The political world is mourning the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. He died last night after a year long battle with brain cancer. Kennedy served in the Senate for 46 years. He became a powerful ally in the battle for civil rights, a cause he continued to champion throughout his career,” she shared.

Ludden was joined by Reverend Jesse Jackson and Rosa Rosales, president of United Latin American Citizens. When asked for their first reactions to Kennedy’s death, Rosales said,

“Oh, my first thought was the - a big sadness came, a great loss to our country, to out community. This man was a beacon of hope, always fighting for those that sometimes were voiceless. He was a strong leader for immigration reform, health reform, education and hate crime legislation. You name it, all things that affect all communities, the senator was there.”

On Kennedy’s more challenging stances during the civil rights era, Jackson added,

“Leaders of substance mould opinion. They don't just follow opinion poll. He was a change agent. No one of his wealth ever reached through the back for the poor nor exalted them higher. I mean his stand with Chavez and the lettuce and grape growers; his stand with those who were picking cotton in the South; his stand for the right to vote. I mean, for these battles, his brothers were killed. Martin King was killed. Medgar Evers was killed. I mean, these were battles against a (unintelligible) at that time, they are issues now that we take for granted and this kind of (unintelligible) leadership.”

Kennedy’s decades-long tenure in the Senate left a profound mark on civil rights, social justice, and the American political landscape.

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Ted Kennedy through the eyes of family, friends, and colleagues:

Back in August 2009, the Kennedy family filled a room with friends, politicians, faces from every corner of the country, all there to remember Ted Kennedy. Not the headlines, not the Senate, not the speeches. Just him. People talked about the work he did and the way he fought for those without a voice.

But his family remembered him differently. Joseph P. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy’s son, said it simply:

"Every single one of my brothers and sisters needed a father, and we gained one through Teddy. For so many of us, we just needed someone to hang onto, and Teddy was always there."

The evening was called “A Celebration of Life.” Stories came out in bursts, some funny, some reckless. Someone remembered him at a Christmas party, decked out as Elvis, the jumpsuit and attitude. Others remembered him on boats, taking risks just because he could.

Even those who argued with him in the Senate smiled through their memories. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, looked down at the shared memories, then expressed:

"I miss fighting in public and joking with him in the background. I miss all the things I knew we could do together."

He remembered the legislation, the bills on children’s health insurance, and the national service programs. For that night, in that room, Ted Kennedy existed as more than a senator, more than a public figure. He existed as a brother, a father figure, a man who mattered, who could make a room pause and remember.

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Joan Kennedy, who shared the early years of Ted Kennedy’s political rise, dies at 89:

While studying at Manhattanville College in 1957, Joan met Jean Kennedy, Ted’s sister, and that friendship changed everything. Within a year, she married Ted Kennedy, stepping into a life that mixed privilege with pressure, and grace with heartbreak. Joan Bennett Kennedy died peacefully at her Boston residence on October 8. She was 89. The family announced her passing in a statement to the Cape Cod Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Her son, Patrick Kennedy, remembered her not only as a devoted mother but also as a talented and resilient woman.

“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. 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,” he said in the statement.