Joan Carswell Kennedy

It took the skillful hands of an old country doctor to bring her through a very difficult birth, when Joan Carswell Kennedy was born to Fred Lee Carswell and Edith Hall Carswell in Avinger, Texas, on February 13, 1923. She was a child of the Depression, with a great empathy for the struggles of common people. Joan had deep East Texas roots, but after her father joined J. C. Penney, Co., in 1926, the family moved back and forth to stores in Texas and Louisiana, living at times in Sherman, Weatherford, Hereford, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and other places. She was an only child, who loved reading and poetry and eventually wrote for the signatures of historic men. Joan attended the University of Texas with the help of an NYA job, but left after marrying her first husband Edley Wilbur Cox in 1942. When Joan's second marriage to John Glover Kennedy ended in 1962, she moved back to Austin with her four children and completed her degree in Sociology at UT.

Joan was hired to work for John Connally's first campaign for governor and after his election was a secretary to Connally throughout his two terms as governor. She had an understanding of the Texas people and a talent for writing in a genuine and personal tone. At the time of the Kennedy Assassination, Joan and other staff members were immediately flown to Dallas so that Governor Connally could work from Parkland Hospital. She sat in on a viewing of the Zapruder film the day after the assassination. After Connally completed his final term of office as governor, Joan organized and archived the records of his administration.

When Lyndon Johnson was planning his return to Texas after his presidency, Connally referred Joan to him as a valued asset. Johnson flew her to Washington on Air Force One, as a guest at the White House and at Camp David. They spoke the same language. Joan worked for Johnson as head of correspondence until his sudden death and he reportedly had some materials she prepared on his nightstand at the time of his death. Joan spent months helping with the mail that came in after Johnson's passing and, after that, went to work in the Oral History Department at the LBJ Presidential Library where she continued to work until her retirement in 1989.

A loving, modest and extremely self-reliant person, Joan was beloved by her children and grandchildren, who mourn her passing on June 3, 2016. Joan never lost her pride or her wit, telling a doctor the day before her death: "I'm only 93, I know I look 114." Joan is survived by her daughter Dian Carswell Cox of Austin, son John Steven Kennedy and his wife Doris of San Marino, Ca., and daughter Kelley Kennedy Strutton and husband David of Austin, along with her grandchildren Jerry Swindall, Sean Swindall, Meredith Todd, Elizabeth Granstrand and Audrey Kennedy, and including her great-grandchildren Grace Granstrand, Claire Todd and James Todd. Joan was preceded in death by her daughter Tracy Kennedy Swindall, a wound from which she never healed. But, Joan's old cat Benji gave her comfort in her final years.