John F. Fitzgerald

John Francis Fitzgerald was born on February 11, 1863 in the North End of Boston to Irish immigrant businessman and politician Thomas Fitzgerald of Bruff, County Limerick and Rosanna Cox of County Cavan. He was the fourth of twelve children. Both of his sisters, Ellen and Mary, and his eldest brother, Michael, died in infancy. Fitzgerald's brother Joseph had severe brain damage from malaria and barely functioned. Only three of the children survived in good health.

Fitzgerald's mother died when he was sixteen. His father wished for him to become a doctor to help prevent future tragedies of the sort that had marred the family. Accordingly, after being educated at Boston Latin School and Boston College,[5][6] he enrolled at Harvard Medical School for one year, but withdrew following the death of his father in 1885.[7] Fitzgerald later became a clerk at the Customs House in Boston and was active in the local Democratic Party.

In the 1890s, Fitzgerald founded the Jefferson Club, a political club founded to organize the Irish Catholic voters of South Boston. It was modeled on earlier clubs like Tammany Hall in New York and Martin Lomasney's Hendricks Club in the West End of Boston.[8] Fitzgerald won election to Boston's Common Council in 1891. In 1892, he became a member of the Massachusetts Senate. These early victories came with support from Martin Lomasney.[9]

In 1894, he was elected to Congress for the 9th district, serving from 1895 to 1901.[10] In his first two terms (1895–99), Fitzgerald was the only Democrat to represent New England in Congress.

In 1916, Fitzgerald unsuccessfully challenged incumbent United States Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

Fitzgerald won a close election for the House in 1918, but his opponent Peter F. Tague contested the race. Investigators found evidence of fraud in 3 precincts and when those precincts were eliminated they found Tague to be the winner. Fitzgerald served from March 4 to October 23, 1919 when the House voted unanimously that Fitzgerald had not won and that Tague had.[21]

In 1922, Fitzgerald unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Governor of Massachusetts Channing Cox.

In his later years, Fitzgerald focused on his business interests and on honing the political instincts of his daughter Rose's promising sons.

In 1932, he campaigned for Franklin Delano Roosevelt for President. He was joined by James Michael Curley and P.J. Kennedy. Fitzgerald unsuccessfully tried to recruit Martin Lomasney to the cause as well. After Roosevelt won the election, Fitzgerald's son-in-law Joseph was appointed chairman of the new U.S. Maritime Commission. Joseph would later serve as chairman of the new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.

In 1942, Fitzgerald ran a quixotic campaign for the U.S. Senate and lost the Democratic primary to Congressman Joseph E. Casey. (Daniel Coakley finished a distant fourth.)

In 1946, when John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy decided to run for Congress, 83-year-old Honey Fitz helped him plan his campaign strategy. At the victory celebration, Fitzgerald danced an Irish jig, sang "Sweet Adeline," and predicted that his grandson would someday occupy the White House. Shortly after his election to the presidency, President Kennedy renamed the presidential yacht the Honey Fitz in honor of his maternal grandfather.

On September 18, 1889, Fitzgerald married his second cousin Mary Josephine "Josie" Hannon (1865-1964). She was a daughter of Michael Hannon and Mary Ann Fitzgerald.[22] John and Mary had six children: Rose Elizabeth (1890–1995), Mary (1892–1936), Thomas (1895–1968), John Jr. (1897–1979), Eunice (1900–23), and Frederick (1904–35). They had nineteen grandchildren, including Rose's nine children with Joseph Kennedy.

Fitzgerald was a member of the Royal Rooters, an early supporters' club for Boston's baseball teams, particularly its American League team, the modern Boston Red Sox. At one point, he was the group's chairman and threw out the ceremonial opening pitch at Fenway Park's inaugural game on April 20, 1912, as well as in the 1912 World Series later that year. His great-granddaughter Caroline Kennedy threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park's 100th anniversary celebration on April 20, 2012.[23]

On October 2, 1950, Fitzgerald died in Boston at the age of eighty-seven. His funeral was one of the largest in the city's history. President Harry S. Truman sent his sympathies and Fitzgerald's pallbearers included two U.S. Senators (Henry Cabot Lodge II and Leverett Saltonstall) two future U.S. Speakers of the House (John McCormack and Tip O'Neill), and James Michael Curley. As "Honey Fitz" was carried to his final rest from Holy Cross Cathedral to St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a crowd of thousands gathered along the streets and sang "Sweet Adeline."

Of his stylish manner, Robert Dallek wrote:

He was a natural politician—a charming, impish, affable lover of people. ... His warmth of character earned him yet another nickname, "Honey Fitz," and he gained a reputation as the only politician who could sing "Sweet Adeline" sober and get away with it. A pixie-like character with florid face, bright eyes, and sandy hair, he was a showman who could have had a career in vaudeville. But politics, with all the brokering that went into arranging alliances and the hoopla that went into campaigning, was his calling. A verse of the day ran: 'Honey Fitz can talk you blind / on any subject you can find / Fish and fishing, motor boats / Railroads, streetcars, getting votes.' His gift of gab became known as Fitzblarney, and his followers as 'dearos,' a shortened version of his description of his district as 'the dear old North End.'[24]

The official name for the Central Artery highway in Boston was "The John F. Fitzgerald Expressway," until it was torn down in the 1990s as part of Boston's "Big Dig" project which eliminated the Central Artery and replaced it with a tunnel. The resulting greenway above the tunnel where the expressway had been was named for Fitzgerald's daughter as the "Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway."

• Kennedy family tree
• Timeline of Boston, 1890s-1910s
• 114th Massachusetts General Court (1893)

• O'Connor, Thomas H. (1995). The Boston Irish: A Political History. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 9781555532208.
• O'Neill, Gerard (2012). Rogues and Redeemers. New York: Crown Publisher. ISBN 9780307405364.
• Van Nostrand, Albert D. (December 1948). "The Lomasney Legend". The New England Quarterly. 21 (4): 435–458. JSTOR 361565.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John F. Fitzgerald.

• United States Congress. "John F. Fitzgerald (id: F000164)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Fitzgerald election records at ourcampaigns.com
• John F. Fitzgerald at Find a Grave