TLS, one page, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, January 26, 1944. Letter to Robert Troutman, Jr., of the Special Committee on Post-War Economic Policy and Planning. In part: "I received a copy of the hearings and I am reading them over at my leisure. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for you to get a number of viewpoints that I am sure will be of great value to you from now on. Kathleen is getting along well in England as nearly as we can tell from her letters. Her address is—c/o American Red Cross, A.P.O. 887, c/o Postmaster, New York, N.Y. Please remember me to your Mother and Father, who were most kind to me when I was in Atlanta." In fine condition, with rusty staple holes, and two filing holes, to the top edge.
Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy began doing volunteer work for the American Red Cross when World War II broke out in Europe. In 1943, she traveled to England to work at a Red Cross center there and began a romantic relationship with politician William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington. Despite religious objections by the Kennedy family, the two were married on May 6, 1944; her brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., was the only family member to attend the civil ceremony.
After her husband was killed by a German sniper on the Belgian front, Kennedy became romantically involved with the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, a Protestant, who was in the process of divorcing his wife. Her parents disapproved of the relationship and threatened to disown and cut off their daughter financially. In 1948, when Kennedy learned that her father would be traveling to Paris, she and her potential husband boarded a plane to ask for consent. Not long after takeoff their plane flew into a storm and crashed in the Cevennes Mountains, killing all four occupants, including the 28-year-old Kennedy. Her father was the only family member at her funeral and no Kennedy would visit her grave until her older brother, President John F. Kennedy, visited in 1963 on his trip to Ireland.
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