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warrior1

(12,325 posts)
Wed May 16, 2012, 05:00 PM May 2012

Mary Kennedy Dead at 52

Source: TMZ

http://www.tmz.com/




Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, 52-year-old Mary Kennedy was found dead in her Mount Kisco, New York home this afternoon.

The Bedford Police Department responded to the scene at approximately 1:36pm to investigate a possible "unattended death," meaning the death was not witnessed by anyone.

Mary and RFK Jr. were married in 1994. Robert filed for divorce in May 2010. Mary was Robert's second wife. The couple has four children together.

snip

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/

32 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Mary Kennedy Dead at 52 (Original Post) warrior1 May 2012 OP
Sad. So young and so much life left to live. Fearless May 2012 #1
Oh dear God. Ken Burch May 2012 #2
Wonder what makes some of these Kennedy women go to the extreme? So very sad southernyankeebelle May 2012 #3
Well, at this point we don't actually know why or how she died. Ken Burch May 2012 #4
Self inflicted some way. It is still so sad. southernyankeebelle May 2012 #10
The ickiest thing is, I'm not sure I WANT to offer my sympathies to RFK Jr. Ken Burch May 2012 #11
It does seem a male Kennedy trait doesn't it. But I haven't heard anything bad about this Kennedy southernyankeebelle May 2012 #12
Where does it say he dumped her? Sounds like glinda May 2012 #18
He left her in 2010 I think. southernyankeebelle May 2012 #20
We don't know the story. One article said she'd struggled with addictions (drugs? gateley May 2012 #24
It appears that he's tried to get her help in the past millijac May 2012 #27
You may be right. Ken Burch May 2012 #30
Apparently it was suicide by hanging. See link below Tx4obama May 2012 #13
My God. I hope none of her kids saw her like that. Ken Burch May 2012 #14
Oh my how very sad. So very sad. southernyankeebelle May 2012 #19
These Kennedys never have it easy, do they? Drunken Irishman May 2012 #5
Thing is...the Kennedy's have about the same 'luck' as average Americans, we just notice the K's HereSince1628 May 2012 #8
Maybe. I guess my family has been lucky... Drunken Irishman May 2012 #9
Sorry, but not many families have an assassinated president AND an assassinated presidential Peace Patriot May 2012 #17
PP you are so right. After JFK was murdered for me things changed forever. I never saw this southernyankeebelle May 2012 #21
They also lost a daughter (Joe and Rosemary) in a plane accident -- she was young, too. nt gateley May 2012 #25
"An entire generation lost all three of its best leaders within raccoon May 2012 #28
wow, what a powerful post. thank you for that. inna May 2012 #31
R.I.P. Tx4obama May 2012 #6
And here is a CNN link below Tx4obama May 2012 #7
:-( Odin2005 May 2012 #15
What a shame DesertRat May 2012 #16
Terribly sad. Beacool May 2012 #22
L.A. Times: Mary Richardson Kennedy, wife of RFK Jr., found dead in New York Rhiannon12866 May 2012 #23
It breaks my heart that people who take this route are in so much gateley May 2012 #26
So sad. ElbarDee May 2012 #29
She was ALONE and depressed. Who would leave this woman alone in the state she was in??? SoCalDemGrrl May 2012 #32
 

Ken Burch

(50,254 posts)
11. The ickiest thing is, I'm not sure I WANT to offer my sympathies to RFK Jr.
Wed May 16, 2012, 07:10 PM
May 2012

From the looks of the story, it looks like he dumped her, and I'm not sure how gentle he was about that.

Hope this doesn't make me a terrible person, but I can't help but wonder how she came to this moment.

My condolences to their children, though. What could possibly be worse for them.

 

southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
12. It does seem a male Kennedy trait doesn't it. But I haven't heard anything bad about this Kennedy
Wed May 16, 2012, 07:21 PM
May 2012

so maybe he had nothing to do with it. I hope that is the case. I know she had a alcohol problem. But I kinda think like you but willing to wait to hear more.

glinda

(14,807 posts)
18. Where does it say he dumped her? Sounds like
Wed May 16, 2012, 08:41 PM
May 2012

she had an illness. Sometimes a person has to leave to save themselves.

gateley

(62,683 posts)
24. We don't know the story. One article said she'd struggled with addictions (drugs?
Thu May 17, 2012, 12:17 AM
May 2012

alcohol?) and that may have been what split them up a couple of years ago. For all we know, he/they tried to get help, but maybe it didn't take. I have a friend who tried valiantly to help his wife get sober, but it sure ate away at the relationship and ultimately ended it.

millijac

(85 posts)
27. It appears that he's tried to get her help in the past
Thu May 17, 2012, 01:56 PM
May 2012

From what I gather she had some mental illness and alcohol issues, and perhaps problems with prescription drugs. One night, he tried to get her seen by a local hospital and she refused treatment. She ran out into the middle of the road where he had to tackle her before she got killed.

I don't know if blaming him for her problems is fair, it just appears to be a very tragic situation for all of them.

HereSince1628

(36,063 posts)
8. Thing is...the Kennedy's have about the same 'luck' as average Americans, we just notice the K's
Wed May 16, 2012, 05:49 PM
May 2012

That's the nature of celebrity.

It's always sad to see a person die when the averages say they have many years left to live.

But, as things go in the US many dozens of suicides of average Americans that take place on this date will go unnoticed by the media.

That's the nature of being 'common'.


 

Drunken Irishman

(34,857 posts)
9. Maybe. I guess my family has been lucky...
Wed May 16, 2012, 06:12 PM
May 2012

I lost my grandparents, who were in their 70s (grandpa was 79) years ago, and my dad who was in his 50s in 2010 - but other than that, I can't think of a single relative who's died young. With the Kennedys, they seem to have a lot who do die young. All my aunts and uncles have lived, my cousins have lived, my mom is still alive. Hell, my mom's cousins are still alive and so are two of her mother's siblings.

So, I guess we just lucked out.

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
17. Sorry, but not many families have an assassinated president AND an assassinated presidential
Wed May 16, 2012, 08:41 PM
May 2012

candidate, plus a possible third assassination (JFK's son), plus a possible set-up for a murder charge (Ted Kennedy), plus a killed bomber pilot son (JFK's older brother), plus various natural deaths and disabilities of children, plus all the other "normal" mishaps or mess-up's of families (teenagers going astray, marriages going bad, alcoholism, etc.) (--the kinds of things that make life miserable for "celebrities" over and above the occasion).

You really have to START with the assassinations to comprehend what the Kennedy family has been through, and still goes through. Theirs is a unique form of "celebrity." I can't think of any precedents in the modern era.

And to top it all off, these weren't just assassinations; they were assassinations of the most popular leaders in the country, at the height of their popularity and power, with the first (JFK) in the middle of a turn toward world peace (and against the "Cold War&quot *, and the second (RFK) committed to world peace and ending the Vietnam War, and both committed to social justice.

This was an extraordinary double-blow to the progressive and democratic ideals of our country--possibly THE death blow to those ideals. Every Kennedy since then has borne the burden of the expectation that our "King Arthur" will return. Whatever they have decided--to enter politics or not--that is their unique burden, that those untimely deaths will be overcome by another Kennedy coming forward as a political leader.

To dismiss this with, "the Kennedy's have about the same 'luck' as average Americans," is inaccurate and shallow. Their "luck" is darkly colored by the assassinations. And, very likely, many of their troubles derive from those assassinations--in psychological trauma, substance abuse, breakups and rebellious or troubled children, and spouses.

...or rather, what you have to start with are the hopes and aspirations of our people that attended JFK's and RFK's short tenures on this earth. There was a lot of psychological project going on, but also a lot of sincere, conscious expectation that our country was capable of social justice and peace and was moving in the right direction.

That is a burden that all of us who lived through it bear, to this day--but it must smash into the psyches of young Kennedys with special force, and it has to be particularly disruptive of family life, of parenting, and of normal child development for them. They aren't just "celebrities." They are the inheritors of high progressive hopes and of the most dreadful, bloody end of those hopes within their family, and, arguably--combined with MLK's assassination--within the country. An entire generation lost all three of its best leaders within a five year period.

The country was never the same, and I'm sure that the Kennedy family was never the same, and never will be. A very dark cloud hangs over them--and over all of us, really. The Corporate Media's obsession with the kinks of "ordinary" celebrities, and some of our people buying into that crap, may be a symptom of it. There is something quite sick about celebrity worship of the Michael Jackson variety which dates precisely to the Reagan era, the beginning of the all-out assault on every democratic institution in the country. The Kennedys are not invented "celebrities." They represent a REAL legacy of progressive change--and the burden of its bloody loss. To dismiss their tragedies, losses and failures as exaggerations (wouldn't be noticed if they weren't Kennedys) is factually upside down (it dismisses the assassinations as if they never happened) and inside out (it dismisses the progressive politics that the family stood for then, and stands for now, as well as it can, as if it were not the main factor in the Kennedys' fame).

One other thing: This current death has not been deemed a suicide. We shouldn't assume that it is. And ANY death in the Kennedy family that is not obviously the result of illness or old age, needs thorough, and I mean thorough, examination, if that is possible.

----------------------

*(I recommend James Douglass' "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters," as the best book not only on the assassination itself but also on what it means now. Awesome book!)

 

southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
21. PP you are so right. After JFK was murdered for me things changed forever. I never saw this
Wed May 16, 2012, 09:11 PM
May 2012

country the same way again. We were cheated of a man who could have been a great president.

raccoon

(31,092 posts)
28. "An entire generation lost all three of its best leaders within
Thu May 17, 2012, 04:03 PM
May 2012

a five year period. "

Yes, and it really strains my imagination to think it was simply COINCIDENCE that all three were progressive
and committed to social justice.



inna

(8,809 posts)
31. wow, what a powerful post. thank you for that.
Fri May 18, 2012, 02:14 AM
May 2012

(highly doubt there was any foul play wrt this most recent death though.)

Beacool

(30,244 posts)
22. Terribly sad.
Wed May 16, 2012, 10:13 PM
May 2012

Not only because she died young, but because she left four children behind who will now have to deal with the fact that their mother committed suicide. I feel for Mary, who apparently was battling addiction and depression, but how terrible for her children. They lost their mom 3 days after Mother's Day, how sad.

My condolences to the family and may Mary have finally found peace.

Rhiannon12866

(203,037 posts)
23. L.A. Times: Mary Richardson Kennedy, wife of RFK Jr., found dead in New York
Wed May 16, 2012, 11:22 PM
May 2012

NEW YORK — Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was found dead on the family’s property north of New York City on Wednesday, two years after her husband filed for divorce and following a history of drug and alcohol problems.

Kerry A. Lawrence, a lawyer who had represented Mary Kennedy in a 2010 drunk driving case, confirmed the death, but neither he nor police in the town of Bedford in Westchester County, N.Y., released a cause of death. An autopsy was scheduled Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

According to a brief statement from Bedford police, officers were called to the Kennedy home in neighboring Mount Kisco at 1:36 p.m. Wednesday “to investigate a possible unattended death.” The statement said that officers found “a deceased person inside an outbuilding” on the property and that an investigation into the cause of death was underway.

Mary Kennedy, 52, was the second wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmentalist and lawyer who is the third child of Ethel and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of President Kennedy. The couple married in April 1994, about a month after his divorce from Emily Black. They had their first child, Conor, that summer. They also had a daughter, Kyra, and two more sons, William and Aiden.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/la-na-nn-mary-kennedy-dead-20120516,0,687453.story

gateley

(62,683 posts)
26. It breaks my heart that people who take this route are in so much
Thu May 17, 2012, 12:22 AM
May 2012

pain that death seems the only thing that will stop it. I'm so sorry to hear of this.

SoCalDemGrrl

(839 posts)
32. She was ALONE and depressed. Who would leave this woman alone in the state she was in???
Fri May 18, 2012, 02:55 AM
May 2012

I read that her 2 oldest children were away at boarding schools and the 2 youngest were with RFK Jr in Los Angeles where he was currently living and dating Cheryl Hines (of the Larry David show).

A close friend reportedly said that Mary was hoping for a reconciliation but when photos of her Ex with a celebrity kept surfacing, it aggravated her depression.

Ok - she was in a depressive state and because of this was probably inclined to drink and NO ONE was there to console her. All four kids were out of her present life and her husband was sleeping with another woman and a celebrity at that with photos of the 2 of them all over the internet- SHIT that just sucks - I can almost see where she just gave up. EVERYONE ABANDONED HER.

IT IS SO VERY SAD!!!

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