12 when his explosives-packed plane en route to a V-1 launch site in Calais blew up over East Suffolk.Ī devastated Joe Kennedy was the only family member to attend the requiem mass generously arranged by Kick’s anti-Catholic British in-laws at Farm Street Church in London and burial in their family plot in Edensor - though his monumental and palpable sadness, the author notes, did not keep him from making a pass at Billy’s 22-year-old sister in London. On a top-secret mission, Navy pilot Joe Jr., 29, eager to match the glory of brother Jack’s PT boat heroics, was killed Aug. Less than five weeks later, Billy left with the Coldstream Battalion for France.
Only Joe Kennedy Jr., who unequivocally supported Kick and gave the bride away, represented her family. On May 6, 1944, the couple wed in a seven-minute civil ceremony at a registry office.
Horrified, pious Rose, the author says, bombarded Kick with frantic telegrams, sent envoys to dissuade her from marrying outside the church and retreated to a hospital bed. When she returned in June 1943 with the Red Cross, they renewed their romance and eventually announced their nuptials. While a tribal religious tug of war raged over the match, Hitler’s troops swept across Europe, Billy joined the Coldstream Guards, and despite Kick’s tearful protests, the ambassador sent his family home from the war.įor more than four years, Kick tried to get back to Billy.
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