(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 a lobotomy.
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, a punctured 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 the accident 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.