Mary Jo Kopechne was the 28 year old political operative who died, tragically, in a car accident near Chappaquiddick Island on July 18,1969. On that night, she attended a party with other women who had worked for the Kennedy family. Kopechne herself had worked on Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Ted Kennedy, Robert’s brother, was also at the party, and Mary Jo and Ted left the party together. Kennedy drove his car off a narrow bridge and it landed, upside down, in Poucha Pond. Kennedy managed to get out of the car and survived, but Kopechne died in the accident. However, Mary Jo didn’t die instantly; she was alive, breathing in a small air pocket in the car, for hours after the accident.
Kennedy did not call the police until the next day, when the car, and Kopechne’s body, had already been discovered. He told Kopechne’s parents about their daughter’s death but did not explain that he had been driving the car when the accident took place. Kennedy later said that he had not been “under the influence” of alcohol while driving and said he did not have a “private relationship” with Kopechne. He and his wife attended her funeral. Here’s what you need to know about Mary Jo Kopechne’s parents:
1. Mary Jo’s Father was a Shipyard Worker Who Became an Insurance Salesman & Her Mother Was a Homemaker in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Mary Jo Kopechne was born in Forty Fort, Luzerne County. Her father, Joseph, was a shipyard worker who commuted to New Jersey for work on the New Jersesy shipyards. When Mary Jo was four, he found work as an insurance salesman and moved the family to East Orange, New Jersey. Mary Jo’s mother, Gwen, was a homemaker. Mary Jo was the couple’s only child. The family lived in a modest home in a predominately Irish and Italian neighborhood. They attended the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, where Mary Jo also went to elementary school. Gwen has told reporters that the three of them were always very close; she said that she and her husband never needed to be strict with Mary Jo, whom she described as a hard working, but fun and cheerful girl who loved to spend time with them.
2. They Were Devout Catholics Who Sent Mary Jo to Parochial School
Joseph and Gwen Kopechne were devout Catholics who, at the time of Mary Jo’s birth, belonged to St. Vincent’s Polish Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. They sent their daughter to Catholic school in elementary school and in high school. She was a good student, working hard and maintaining good grades. “The group of girls she hung out with were all honor roll students,” said Emalene Fargnoli, a childhood friend. “She wasn’t a popular girl, but she was involved in many activities including the glee club, the drama club, the school newspaper and the yearbook.”
Carol Capik, another close friend, said that Mary Jo was also “more active than others in Sodality, a school organization that promoted Christian charity.” “I’m sure that’s why the nuns liked her so much,” she added.
3. Joseph & Gwen Kopechne Said They Never Got an Apology from Ted Kennedy & Said They Still Blamed Him for Mary Jo’s Death
GettyReporters question American Senator Edward Kennedy (center, with neck brace) and his wife Joan Kennedy (left, in white coat and dark glasses) as they walk across the tarmac after returning from the funeral of Mary Jo Kopechne, Hyannis, Massachusetts, July 22, 1969.
Back in 1989, Joseph Kopechne told a reporter at the Ladies’ Home Journal that his daughter’s death had not been in vain — because, he said, at least the notorious accident ended Ted Kennedy’s chances of ever becoming president. His wife, Gwen, said later that Kopechne had made the statement out of anger and that he didn’t really mean for it to come out that way.
Both Joseph and Gwen have said that they blamed Ted Kennedy for not calling the police on the night that he drove his car off the bridge. They said that if he had alerted the police right away, their daughter might still be alive. Kennedy said that he tried to free Kopechne from the car and that he returned to the party on Chappaquiddick to get help. But when none of them was able to rescue Kopechne, Kennedy still did not call the police, waiting until authorities had discovered the car — and Kopechne’s dead body — until he came forward.
4. Joseph & Gwen Were the Children of Coal Miners & Had Deep Roots in the Wyoming Valley, PA
Joseph and Gwen were both the children of coal miners who had worked in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Gwen’s father, William, came to the US from Wales, along with his parents, in 1881, when he was a young boy. Like many Welsh families, they settled in Luzerne County, and the men found work in the coal mines. Joseph’s ancestors arrived from Austria at about the same time. The family has deep roots in the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; Mary Jo’s roots in Wyoming County can be traced back 250 years. She is buried at St. Vincent’s Cemetery on Larksville Mountain, making her the fifth generation of her family to be interred there.
Mary Jo was born in Forty Fort, in Luzerne County. But the region’s economy was faltering, and her father was having trouble finding work. He commuted to a job in the New Jersey shipyards before eventually finding work as an accountant and moving his family to East Orange, New Jersey when Mary Jo was four years old.
5. Joseph & Gwen Lived Long Lives & Died Within Four Years of Each Other
Joseph and Gwen Kopechne both lived long lives. Joseph died at age 90 in an East Stroudsburg nursing home, in 2003. Gwen Kopechne lived to be 89 years old. She died in 2007 at a nursing home in Plains Township. After their death, two of Mary Jo’s cousins wrote and published a book called Our Mary Jo, which aimed at telling the story of their cousin, not from a political point of f