Mary Josephine Hannon Fitzgerald

Mary Josephine "Josie" Hannon (October 31 1865 - August 8 1964) was the wife of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the mother of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother-in-law of Joseph P. Kennedy and maternal grandmother of John F., Robert and Ted Kennedy.

Josephine Hannon was born on October 31, 1865 in Acton, Massachusetts to Irish immigrants Michael Hannon and Mary Ann Fitzgerald. She was the fifth of nine children, only four of whom survived. One brother died of fever at the age of six, while Josie's mother was pregnant with her; another had died of a lung inflammation four years earlier. Two sons died early of alcoholism, while the one who survived had his leg crushed by a train at age thirteen. The youngest girl drowned with her best friend while Josie was supposed to be caring for them, an event that would mark her and her two surviving sisters for the rest of their lives.

On September 18 1889, Hannon married John FitzGerald.

Mary Fitzgerald died on August 8, 1964 just two months short of her ninety-ninth birthday. Her death came less than a year after The Assassination of her grandson, President John F. Kennedy. Family members claimed she was never told of his death.

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