Esther Newberg

Last updated

Esther Newberg, originally from Middletown, Connecticut, is an American literary agent and former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign. [1]

Contents

Political career

Newberg attended Wheaton College, [2] and joined Senator Robert F. Kennedy's staff in 1968. She was also a member of the presidential campaign staffs of Senator Edmund Muskie and Representative Mo Udall. She was one of the six "Boiler Room Girls" who socialized with Ted Kennedy and several others on the evening of Mary Jo Kopechne's death. [3]

Literary agent

Newberg is the senior vice president at International Creative Management, a talent agency in New York City. She has represented authors such as Carl Hiaasen ( Skinny Dip ) and Robert Iger ( Trace ), Thomas Friedman, Michael Beschloss, Don Imus, Tom Hanks, Ina Garten, Chris Rock and Caroline Kennedy. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 United States presidential election</span> 46th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eunice Kennedy Shriver</span> American philanthropist (1921–2009)

Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver was an American philanthropist and a member of the Kennedy family. She was the founder of the Special Olympics, a sports organization for persons with intellectual disabilities. For her efforts on behalf of disabled people, Shriver was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene McCarthy</span> American politician (1916–2005)

Eugene Joseph McCarthy was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. McCarthy sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1968 election, challenging incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson on an anti-Vietnam War platform. McCarthy unsuccessfully ran for U.S. president four more times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Kennedy</span> American politician (1932–2009)

Edward Moore Kennedy was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party and the prominent Kennedy family, he was the second-most senior member of the Senate when he died. He is ranked fifth in U.S. history for length of continuous service as a senator. Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the father of U.S. representative Patrick J. Kennedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldwell University</span> Catholic university in Caldwell, New Jersey, U.S.

Caldwell University is a private Catholic university in Caldwell, New Jersey. Founded in 1939 by the Sisters of St. Dominic, the university is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, chartered by the State of New Jersey, and registered with the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Caldwell offers 25 undergraduate and 30 graduate programs, including doctoral, master's, certificate, and certification programs, as well as online and distance learning options.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Jo Kopechne</span> American teacher, secretary, and campaign specialist (1940–1969)

Mary Jo Kopechne was an American secretary, and one of the campaign workers for U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign, a close team known as the "Boiler Room Girls". In 1969, she asphyxiated when a car driven by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy left a narrow road on Chappaquiddick Island and overturned into Poucha Pond after they had left a party. According to reports, Kennedy left the party at 11:15 p.m. Kopechne's body and the car were not reported until the next morning, approximately nine to ten hours later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel Kennedy</span> American human rights campaigner (born 1928)

Ethel Kennedy is an American human rights advocate. She is the widow of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and the sixth child of George and Ann Skakel. Shortly after her husband's assassination in 1968, Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a non-profit charity working to reach his goal of a just and peaceful world. In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She is the oldest living member of the Kennedy Family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John V. Tunney</span> American politician (1934–2018)

John Varick Tunney was an American politician who served as a United States Senator and Representative from the state of California in the 1960s and 1970s. A Democrat, Tunney was known for his focus on anti-trust and environmental legislation, especially the Noise Pollution Control Act of 1972 and the anti-trust Tunney Act. Tunney also strongly supported civil rights and shepherded the 1975 expansion of the Voting Rights Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kennedy curse</span> Premature deaths and calamities for Kennedy family

The Kennedy curse is a series of deaths, accidents, assassinations, and other calamities involving members of the American Kennedy family. The alleged curse has primarily struck the descendants of businessman Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., but it has also affected family friends, associates, and other relatives. Political assassinations and plane crashes have been the most common manifestations of the "curse". Following the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, Ted Kennedy is quoted saying he questioned if "some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys." However skeptics argue that it is not improbable for a large extended family to experience similar events over the course of several generations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Bennett Kennedy</span> First wife of Ted Kennedy

Virginia Joan Kennedy is an American socialite who was the first wife of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.

The "Boiler Room Girls" was a nickname for a group of six women who worked as political advisors for Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign in a windowless work area in Kennedy's Washington, D.C. electoral offices. They were political strategists who received national media exposure from the infamous Chappaquiddick incident in 1969. It was in Chappaquiddick that Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car crash, in which Ted Kennedy was the driver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1960 Democratic National Convention</span> U.S. political event held in Los Angeles, California

The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California, on July 11–15, 1960. It nominated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chappaquiddick incident</span> 1969 Ted Kennedy car accident causing death of Mary Jo Kopechne

The Chappaquiddick incident occurred on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, United States, sometime around midnight, between July 18 and 19, 1969, when United States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a narrow bridge, causing it to overturn in Poucha Pond. The crash resulted in the death of his 28-year-old passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, who was trapped inside the vehicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries</span> Selection of Democratic US presidential candidate

From March to July 1968, Democratic Party voters elected delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the purpose of selecting the party's nominee for president in the upcoming election. Delegates, and the nominee they were to support at the convention, were selected through a series of primary elections, caucuses, and state party conventions. This was the last time that state primary elections formed a minority of the selection process, as the McGovern–Fraser Commission, which issued its recommendations in time for the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries, would dramatically reform the nomination process to expand the use of popular primaries rather than caucuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert F. Kennedy</span> American politician and lawyer (1925–1968)

Robert Francis Kennedy, also known by his initials RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is an icon of modern American liberalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Kennedy</span> American philanthropist, mother of John F. Kennedy

Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy was an American philanthropist, socialite, and matriarch of the Kennedy family. She was deeply embedded in the "lace curtain" Irish-American community in Boston. Her father, John F. Fitzgerald, served in the Massachusetts State Senate (1892–1894), in the U.S. House of Representatives, and as Mayor of Boston. Her husband, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1934–1935) and the U.S. Maritime Commission (1937–1938), and served as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1938–1940). Their nine children included United States President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. In 1951, Rose Kennedy was ennobled by Pope Pius XII, becoming the sixth American woman to be granted the rank of Papal countess.

Paul Francis Markham was an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1966 to 1969. He was one of two associates of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in whom Kennedy confided most closely during the Chappaquiddick incident. Markham, along with Kennedy's cousin Joseph Gargan, participated in a futile attempt to rescue Mary Jo Kopechne from Kennedy's submerged car, and also wrote down Kennedy's dictated statement to the police about the accident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Kennedy Smith</span> American diplomat (1928–2020)

Jean Ann Kennedy Smith was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. She was a member of the Kennedy family, the eighth of nine children, and youngest daughter, born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. Her siblings included President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She was also a sister-in-law of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Our Lady of the Valley High School was a Catholic high school in Orange in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, that operated under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.

Joseph F. Gargan Jr., was an American lawyer and a nephew of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was one of only two men, along with Paul Markham, in whom Ted Kennedy chose to confide immediately after the Chappaquiddick automobile accident which killed Mary Jo Kopechne. Orphaned at the age of sixteen, Gargan spent two consecutive summers with the Kennedys, and, being closer in age to Ted than the other Kennedy brothers were, developed a close relationship with his cousin Ted. Gargan was the campaign chairman for Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign.

References