Mary Jo Kopechne
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Mary Jo Kopechne (July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969) was an American teacher, secretary and administrator, notable for her death in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island in a car driven by Senator Ted Kennedy.
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[edit] Life
Kopechne was born in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, was the only child of insurance salesman Joseph Kopechne and his wife Gwen. Upon graduation from Caldwell College for women in New Jersey, Kopechne moved to Birmingham, Alabama to teach at the Mission of St. Jude school. She then moved to Washington, D.C. to work as secretary to Florida Senator George Smathers before subsequently becoming secretary to New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy following his election in 1964. At the time of her death, she was working for Matt Reese Associates, a Washington D.C. firm that helped establish campaign headquarters for politicians. She had taken that position in December 1968 after Kennedy's death from an assassin's bullet the previous June.
[edit] Death
On July 18, 1969, Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, held in honor of the "Boiler Room Girls." This affectionate name was given to the six young women who had been vital to the former Robert Kennedy presidential campaign and who had subsequently closed up his files and campaign office after his assassination.
Besides Kopechne, the other women, all single, were Susan Tannenbaum, Maryellen Lyons, Ann Lyons, Rosemary (Cricket) Keough, and Esther Newberg. The men in attendance, all married but present without their wives, were Ted Kennedy, Joe Gargan, U.S. Attorney Paul Markham, Charles Tretter, Raymond La Rosa, and John Crimmins. The festivity was held at Lawrence Cottage, rented for the occasion by Gargan, Ted Kennedy's cousin and lawyer. The twelve attendees gathered at the cottage after two Kennedy boats raced in the Edgartown Regatta earlier in the day.
Kopechne left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Ted Kennedy after he allegedly offered to drive her back to the Katama Shores Motor Inn in Edgartown where she was staying. According to Ted Kennedy, on his way to the ferry crossing back to Edgartown, he accidentally turned right onto Dike Road instead of bearing left on Main Street. After proceeding one-half mile, he descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge set obliquely to the unlit road. Ted Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off the side of Dike (or Dyke) Bridge, and the car overturned into Poucha Pond.
Ted Kennedy extricated himself from the submerged car but Kopechne died. Since her parents' lawyer, Joseph Flanagan, filed a petition barring an autopsy, the cause of death was never medically confirmed. When the car was recovered, all the doors were locked and three of the windows were either open or smashed in.
Ted Kennedy claims he dove down several times attempting to free her and after exhausting himself, rested for twenty minutes, then walked back to the Lawrence Cottage where the party had been held. At the Lawrence Cottage, Ted Kennedy summoned his cousin, Joe Gargan, and another friend, Paul Markham, to return to the scene of the accident. Ted Kennedy sat in the back of a white Plymouth Valiant rental car that Kopechne had used that day. Though there was a working telephone at this location, the group waited 10 hours before they contacted the police. Ted Kennedy then returned to the submerged car with Gargan and Markham who then resumed trying to reach her. The group claimed that the tidal current prevented them from reaching her.
[edit] Aftermath
On television Kennedy later said he was not driving under the influence of alcohol. This has been widely disputed by many reports. He explained he was in a state of shock when he emerged from the creek and confused by "a jumble of emotions," and that his conduct in not reporting the accident was "inexcusable." He said he gave up hope and remembers little of how he got back to his hotel in Edgartown, except that he swam the narrow channel because there were no night ferries, and nearly drowned in the process.
Kennedy pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a two month suspended sentence and one year probation. Questions remain about his attempts to save Kopechne and the possibility of interference in the investigation and the trial by his family and friends. Kopechne's death severely damaged Kennedy's reputation and is regarded as a major reason that he was never able to mount a successful campaign for President of the United States.
A funeral Mass for Kopechne was held on July 22, 1969 at St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. She is buried in the parish cemetery on the side of Larksville Mountain.
[edit] Bobby Baker scandal
During her tenure as Senator Smathers' secretary, Kopechne shared an apartment with Nancy Carole Tyler, secretary to Bobby Baker, an aide to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. An emerging scandal involving Baker's corrupt activities prompted President John F. Kennedy to privately offer Senator George Smathers the second spot on the 1964 presidential ticket, and plan to drop Johnson as his running mate. The roommates, Kopechne and Tyler, allegedly leaked the President's plans to the press. In her book, "Kennedy and Johnson", former JFK assistant Evelyn Lincoln writes that the president was also considering Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina.
Some conspiracy theorists have claimed a link between the Bobby Baker scandal and the 1963 JFK assassination. Tyler died in a plane crash in May 1965. Kopechne went on to become secretary to Senator Robert F. Kennedy until he was assassinated in June 1968 during his run for the presidency.
[edit] Further reading
- 1969 The bridge at Chappaquiddick by Jack Olsen
- 1969 The Ted Kennedy episode by H. Don Hastings
- 1971 Teddy Bare, the Last of the Kennedy Clan. by Zad Rust
- 1973 You, the jury -- in re: Chappaquiddick by R. B. Cutler
- 1975 The Inspector's opinion: The Chappaquiddick incident by Malcolm Reybold
- 1976 The last Kennedy by Robert Sherrill
- 1976 Burns, James M. Edward Kennedy and the Camelot Legacy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-07501-X
- 1979 Kennedy's Chappaquiddick revisited: What really happened by John Haggard
- 1979 Tedrow, Thomas L. Death at Chappaquiddick. New Orleans: Pelican Company. ISBN 0-88289-249-5
- 1980 Chappaquiddick decision by Larryann C Willis
- 1988 Damore, Leo. Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up. Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway. ISBN 0-89526-564-8
- 1989 Chappaquiddick Revealed What Really Happened by Kenneth Kappel
- 1993 Chappaquiddick: The Real Story by James E. T. Lange, Katherine, Jr. Dewitt
- 1992 Oates, Joyce C. Black Water. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-93455-3 (fictional treatment)
