First wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

Joan B. Kennedy, the former wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who endured a long and troubled marriage marked by family tragedies, her husband's infidelities and her own struggles with alcoholism and mental health, died on Wednesday. She was 89.

- BY MICHAEL CASEY

A LIFE IN THE SPOTLIGHT Kennedy, shown in 1979, publicly acknowledged her struggles with alcoholism and depression.

DAVE TENENBAUM Associated Press

The former Joan Bennett was a model and classically trained pianist when she married Kennedy in 1958. Their lives would change unimaginably over the next decade and a half. Brotherin-law John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960 and assassinated three years later. Brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy served as attorney general under JFK, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964 and assassinated while seeking the presidency.

Her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate and became among the country's most respected legislators despite initial misgivings that he was capitalizing on his family connections. But Edward Kennedy also lived through scandals of his own making. In 1969, the car he was driving plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his young female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.