A Connecticut Childhood

A doctor’s daughter, Bessette Kennedy was born in White Plains, NY., on January 7, 1966. She moved to the posh New York City suburb of Greenwich, Conn., when her parents divorced when she was 8.

     Seen as beautiful and gracious even back at St. Mary High School, where she graduated from in 1983, Bessette Kennedy made her mark

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     “She was just in a class all by herself,” said Joe Fellin, who, with Bessette Kennedy, was named runners-up as high school homecoming royalty. “Most girls, when they’re that attractive in high school, they’re stuck-up. But she talked to everybody.”

     “She was the type of girl that any mother would want for a daughter,” said the mother of high-school friend Robert Bothwell Jr.

 Bessette Kennedy majored in elementary education at Boston University, earning her degree in 1988. Her classic looks landed her on cover of the calendar The Women of BU.

 Instead of pursuing a career in the classroom, she took a marketing position for “That’s Entertainment,” part of a Boston nightclub consortium. Co-worker Joe Varange remembers Bessette Kennedy as “a good schmoozer and networker.”