And, If I May, A Word Or Two About David Kennedy, RFK's Fourth Son...

David Anthony Kennedy died of a drug overdose in 1984, and has been kicked around ever since by the right-wing fascists who pull his name out of their ass anytime they feel the need to take the Kennedy family down a peg or two. But unlike the partying the current frat-boy in the White House was used to, David self-medicated to relieve himself of terrible personal pain. At least that's what I believe.

I met David back in the late 70's\early 80's at a local watering hole. My sister, who worked with him, introduced us. And although I may have been a back slapping, coke snorting, skirt chasing BMOC back then, David certainly was not. He was soft spoken, gentle, and would only smile, never laugh. He had the look of someone much older than he was. He liked to sit back and observe the comings and goings of others, and none of us EVER spoke the thousands of questions we had for him about his family. So it was with some shock and chagrin that I learned of David's story while reading a book on his father in the 1990s. Many people only know the second half of the story.

Early on the day of (or day before) his father's death, David and some of the other kids were down swimming at one of the beaches in the LA area. At some point David got caught in a rip-tide and started panicking a bit. When others noticed him struggling to get back to shore, his dad ran into the surf, swam after him, calmed him down, and showed him how to get back to shore. IOW - Bobby saved his son's life that day. And when you are 12, and your dad might be the next president, and he saves your life... well RFK's hero status with David must have gone up in orders of magnitude that day.

So it was with major sorrow that somebody from the campaign, or family (I can't remember which), found David the night of the assassination. With Bobby and Ethel downstairs thanking the crowd for their support, and congratulating everyone involved for an impressive victory in California, the kids were scattered in various rooms about the hotel. David was by himself, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching TV. He watched the results by himself, he watched the victory speech by himself, and he watched the man who had just saved his life, get gunned down right there in front of him , on the TV, in the very same hotel... all by himself.

When somebody finally realized, after ambulance rides, reporters calls, and a national freak out, that nobody had seen David, they went looking for him. They found him, still sitting on the edge of that bed, never having moved, eyes still transfixed on the TV set, in total shock. He was almost delirious, and somebody had the good sense to wrap him in a blanket, and have him checked by medical personnel. His 13th birthday would be nine days later. That Christmas he wrote,

"There will be no more football with Daddy, no more swimming with him, no more riding and no more camping with him. But he was the best father there ever was and I would rather have him for a father for the length of time I did than any other father for a million years."

RIP to you too David

Peace to us all

:patriot: :(

just wows

and thanks for sharing

That is such a sad story. :cry:

RIP Bobby and David.

I am glad I read your post today because I never knew about David Kennedy; I do now. What a very sad story (sniff). :-(

RIP, David.

Typing through tears here...no one should ever have to feel that pain. Thanks for the story.:-(

Serving the people has taken its toll on them over the years. Thanks for sharing this story.

....even begin to fathom in our worst nightmares how deep and how horrible the pain of his Dad's death must have been for David. I understand much more now.:cry:

I remember this well, also. I watched it as it happened and grieved. How small my sorrow was compared to his. I love the Kennedy's and grieve every time something horrible happens to them. No curse. Someone has it in for them big time. Either that, or just a desire to eliminate a political sure thing.

Thank you very much for drawing our attention to this sad, sad story of David's. I pray a special blessing on all the Kennedy's and thank them for their many unbelievable sacrifices for our country.

I was in Palm Beach the night he took his life. The city seemed to come to a stop for days, and an awful lot of the old-timers, including some that voted for his uncle (President) and father looked much older that week.

quite well, actually. I met him at his home in VA the summer after he graduated high school. He'd just returned from an internship at the Nashville Tennessean. He was really jazzed about journalism. We spent a lot of time together the following autumn, winter and spring in Cambridge. David told me that story. His pain over his father was still intense, and he wasn't close to his Mom, which made losing his Dad an even greater loss. He was using pretty heavily the entire time I knew him. We drifted apart. I last saw him in the late seventies. David was smart and funny and almost hypersensitive. He was lost in the Kennedy mythos. He felt he didn't fit in and didn't fit the image. I loved him.

He also kind of had that "Thousand Yard Stare" that combat vets develop.

He really enjoyed not being a Kennedy, if ya know what I mean.

:hi::loveya::hi:

I experienced upon the memories your post awakened. I don't think about those times very often. I just went and dug up some old pics. Christ we were young. And god I was ignorant about politics when I met him, despite coming from a family active in dem politics. The first night David and I hung out we were in a den type room at Hickory Hill, and there was this poster on the wall with a phrase that said something like the youth of our country are in the streets, out of control. David said, "guess who said that?" and I replied, "I don't know. Your father? Your uncle?". Turned out it was a quote from Hitler. I was embarassed beyond description, but David cracked up.

Wierd thinking about all this, and looking at those crumpled pictures. (I've never been good at putting stuff in albums). Old memories, things you haven't thought of in years, come flooding back.

:hug:

wow for this and the OP.

Invisible shrapnel from the bullet that killed RFK. It hit David and anyone who knew him and loved him. Thanks for sharing this. I never really contemplated him. I was young when he died and the Kennedys kind of blended for me at the time. How very sad. Yet another loss for the world.

:hug: Peace

RIP Bobby and David and JFK and JFK jr
You live on. :patriot:

That is an excellent term for what I think all the Kennedy family must have experienced... hell, a lot of America was hit with it, too...

Peace.

From a book I recently read: "It would be interesting to follow one bullet, see where it finally stops. You think it ends in somebody's body, but really it keeps going, the people he knew, the way it changes things, on and on."

When I read that earlier this week, I thought of all the people of every nationality, race, sex, religious persuasion, age, color, etc., killed in the WTC, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. This account of David Kennedy's life and death illustrates just a small part of the effect of the bullet which killed his father.

I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to see it happen on TV, all alone. :cry:

i can't tell how much, but i got a few tears going.
:hug:

and I recall reading this story about David around the time he passed thinking how horrible it must have been for him. I can't imagine having to lose my father in such a traumatic and public way, though losing him as a child was incredibly hard.

All of those children were the "walking wounded" after Bobby's death. I'm sure Ethel and Teddy tried to help them cope as best they could but it was a difficult task, at best.

You never, ever get over losing a parent, especially when it happens early in life.

RIP, David and Bobby.

murder, MLK's murder. It was the end of the world, a world of hope and possibility. RIP, David. I remember you.

Thank you for this touching story. Highly recommended.

:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

I understand...

that their mother would never let any of the kids talk of their father's death.

Holding it in like that must have made it a thousand times worse.

I never knew this story... WillyT, you're breaking my heart today... :cry:

whew

a cannonball just went through my gut

holy shit


god dammit
god dammit

that family has no curse, only brutish corporatists as opponents

wreaked havoc on all his male descendants.

I knew part of it, that he had been alone and seen his own father gunned down, something that no child should ever have to experience. But this is personal and completes the story. What a tragedy. He sounds like he was an exceptional young man.;(

I was watching that broadcast the night RFK was assinated and I've never been the same. Peace for David. Peace for the world.

:kick: