JFK- the man, the myth, the Catholic.

Today, I want to present a  biographies, and background of one of the more well known presidents. We will focus mostly on his college years, and the years shortly before he ran for President. This will possibly be followed with another background of a different president.


We start with JFK, one of the better known Presidents, yet his background is often overshadowed by the story of his assassination. (information from the JFK Presidential Library)

John Fitzgerald (yes, that's actually what the F stands for) Kennedy was the second born of nine children. (Born May 29, 1917) He was named after his father, and spent most of his childhood around Boston.

Kennedy entered Harvard in 1936, and played football, before rupturing a disk in his back. His grades were average, he was well liked and very social, however, he was not the first Kennedy to consider running for president. His older brother Joe announced that he would be the first Catholic to become president. It was around this time that his father was appointed US ambassador to England, and the family, minus Joe and John who were at Harvard, would move to England.

It was because of his father's job that first thrust Kennedy toward the world of politics and government. On September 1, 1939, Germany would invade Poland, WW2 would begin and only a year later, JFK graduated from Harvard.

Both Kennedy and his brother Joe joined the Navy, and JFK became a Lieutenant. Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his leadership and courage during the war, but his brother Joe would tragically die during the war.

While Kennedy had originally considered becoming a writer or schoolteacher, his brother's untimely death would spur him to run for Congress in Massachusetts, winning the seat in 1946. Kennedy, a Democrat, would spend three years in the House of Representatives, and would win the Senate seat in 1952. It was during this time that he would meet and marry Jacqueline Bouvier.

A popular politician, Kennedy was almost picked to run as VP in 1956, but nonetheless decided that he would run for president in the next election. July 13, 1960, the Democratic party nominated him as its candidate for president. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson would run as his VP.

And on November 8, 1960, the young Kennedy would narrowly defeat the Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon and became the youngest man elected president, and as his brother Joe had hoped, the first Catholic president.