Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, granddaughter of Robert Kennedy, and her eight-year-old son Gideon, went missing Thursday evening in a canoeing accident. According to husband David McKean, Maeve and Gideon hopped into the canoe to chase a ball that had landed on the Chesapeake Bay and was floating away.
The family was staying at Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s waterfront home in Shady Side, Maryland. When Gideon lost a ball on the water, his mom took him into the canoe to paddle out and retrieve it. According to David, “They just got farther out than they could handle and couldn’t get back in.”
Some reports now hold that Maeve, 40, and Gideon drowned Thursday after their boat was overtaken by strong winds. However, these reports have been difficult to corroborate. If this is true, then Maeve is the latest in a long line of Kennedys to die young in odd circumstances.
Before her disappearance, Maeve was involved in numerous organizations. She has been serving as executive director for the Global Health Initiative in Georgetown, focusing on the “intersection of global health and human rights,” according to her bio.
She worked in the State Department under Obama, and in the Department of Health and Human Services years later. In all, she was closely involved with both American politics and healthcare, living up to her auspicious legacy.
In the summer of 2019, after exhibiting several of the 7 signs of depression, Maeve’s cousin, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, overdosed. Her death occurred while she was staying at the family property with Ethel Kennedy, who is now 91. Saoirse was 22 when she died. Until Maeve’s recent disappearance and likely drowning, Saoirse was the most recent victim of what some consider the Kennedy family curse.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. passed away while serving in the Navy in 1944. He was in a plane over France when his plane was shot down. Next, his brother, John F Kennedy, would go on to become the 35th President of the United States. In 1963, he was assassinated in an event that is still obsessed over by conspiracy theorists.
Robert F. Kennedy, the third son, was killed in 1968 after winning the California presidential primary. John F. Kennedy Jr., JFK’s son, was killed in 1999 when his plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean outside of Martha’s Vineyard. Mary Richardson Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr.’s wife, took her own life in 2012. There are numerous other examples.
