Mary Jo Kopechne Biography

Mary Jo Kopechne was an American teacher, secretary, and political campaign specialist, who came to limelight when she worded Robert F. Kennedy's March 1968 speech that announced his presidential candidacy. Her promising life was cut short as she died in a car accident in 1969, while she was traveling as a passenger in a car being driven by the US Senator Ted Kennedy. Kopechne, who once taught at the Mission of St. Jude, had also worked as a political campaign specialist on New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy's secretarial staff. She had worked as a secretary for Florida Senator George Smathers as well. She was a loyal worker who worked hard day and night at Kennedy's Hickory Hill home. She was knowledgeable politically and had the ability to work on sensitive matters. She was also a keen enthusiastic participant of his office softball team. Kopechne was a fan of Polish-American Carl Yastrzemski and Boston Red Sox. In her personal life, she was known to be a woman of morals. Being a devout Roman Catholic with a serious, demure "convent school" demeanour, she rarely drank and had no reputation of sexual conducts with men.