Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.

About

Kennedy patriarch and father of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was an influential Democrat and Irish Catholic.

Before Fame

He started a salon business and played baseball on his high school team.

Trivia

He was the first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and directed the Maritime Commission. He was the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 until 1940.

Family Life

He married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of a prominent New York mayor, and had nine children.

Associated With

He bitterly opposed Father Charles Coughlin's anti-Communist, anti-Semitic, anti-Federal Reserve, isolationist radio program.