By David Jordan Jr
July 16, 2014 marked the 15th anniversary of the death John F. Kennedy Jr, the son of the 35th president of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Along with JFK Jr his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette were also killed in the plane crash which tragically took their lives on the night of July 15, 1999. His father was killed by an assassin’s bullet, November 22, 1963, three days before his 3rd birthday. Having to grow up in the light of “Camelot” was a micro spore that JFK Jr was born into and with the murders of his father President John F. Kennedy and uncle, Senator Robert F. Kennedy he was then seen by many as the successor to the Camelot tradition as his bloodline indicated, although he was still a very young child. His mother Jackie Kennedy (later Jackie Kennedy Onassis after her marriage to Aristotle Onassis) made it her priority to see to it that he and his sister Caroline Kennedy were able to grow up in the most normal circumstances stances possible with the magnifying glass that their family name cast over them. Jr attended different private schools in New York City and attended college at Brown University, graduating with a degree in history in 1983. Upon graduating from Brown he put his hand in many different ventures, most notably acting and law. He earned a law degree in 1989 from New York University School of Law and eventually served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office for four years.
“George” magazine was founded in 1995 by him and Michael J. Berman. Covering politics, fashion and interviewing many mainstream celebrities, this magazine proved to be a very successful endeavor. It was also during this time that his relationship with his future wife, Carolyn Bessette began to blossom, as they became engaged before the launch of George.
The fact that JFK Jr was a celebrity yet lived a simple life considering his fame and bloodline is one of the things that enabled people to naturally love him. People could identify with him in the fact the he failed (failed his New York bar exam twice before passing) yet kept pursuing his goal, despite what others thought. This resiliency is the same thing which his father embodied, seeking greater things, making a relentless effort to get goals accomplished. The dream of being able to fly seeded within him as a kid was fulfilled when he obtained his pilot license in 1998, one year before his untimely death. 15 years after his death we look upon his life with the same questions that we look upon the life of his father John F. Kennedy; what if? How would things be if he had lived? Would he have run for political office? Would he have run for President of the United States? How would his vision for the world have impacted today’s society? Those are questions we will never have the answer to, we can only speculate. As much as JFK Jr was a link to his father President Kennedy he was a different person with his own aura and persona which captured the public in the same manner as his father.
