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For Joe Kennedy it had been a long and colorful journey from the Boston of the Mauve Decade to the Palm Beach hospital room. On Wall Street, he had amassed one of the great fortunes of the U.S. He had served his country ably as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, chief of the Maritime Commission and U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. And he had seen his second son become the first Irish Catholic President of the U.S. in history. As a father, he was justifiably proud. "The real measure of success," he had said, "is to get a family that does as well as mine. I don't know what you can throw on the table that is better than that."
* Joseph Jr., a naval lieutenant, died a hero's death over the English Channel as pilot of a secret "drone" plane, heavy with explosives, which was aimed at a Nazi V-2 site.