Mary Augusta Kennedy (née Hickey; December 6, 1857 – May 20, 1923) was an American activist, a member of the Kennedy Family and the wife of P. J. Kennedy. She was the mother of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and the grandmother of U.S President John F. Kennedy.
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Background
Mary was born on December 6, 1857 in Winthrop, Massachusetts to Margaret "Martha" Hickey (née Field) and James Hickey. Her father was a saloon keeper from Brockton, Massachusetts, who later became a contractor. Her mother was born on a tenant farm. Her sister was the mayor of Brockton. Both of her parents were immigrants from County Cork, Ireland. She was active in women's suffrage in the United States.
Marriage & Children
On November 23, 1887, she married P. J. Kennedy and they had four children; her eldest being Joseph Sr. the father of President John. F Kennedy, born on September 6, 1888. Due to her husband's growing political career in Boston's Democratic Party and his increasing wealth the family lived in a large private home on Jeffries Point in East Boston.
Augusta and Patrick's children were Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. (1888–1969), who married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald in 1914 and had nine children; Francis Benedict Kennedy (1891–1892), who died of diphtheria at fifteen months old; Mary Loretta Kennedy (1892–1972), who married George William Connelly in 1927 and had one daughter; and Margaret Louise Kennedy (1898–1974), who married Charles Joseph Burke in 1924 and had three children.
Death & Burial
She died on May 20, 1923 in Boston, and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts.