# RIP Mary Jo Kopechne **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788 "2009-08-26T17:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/1 "2009-08-26T17:20:55Z")
It makes me very sad that Mary Jo Kopechne is just a footnote in Ted Kennedy’s byline. Now that he is dead she is about to be forgotten by history. That makes me very sad. ---
**Author:** ![Yaxche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8dc957/32.png) [@Yaxche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yaxche)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/2 "2009-08-26T17:23:24Z")
Who? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/3 "2009-08-26T17:28:05Z")
She’s less forgotten than she would have been had Ted not maliciously nailed her inside that car, laughing maniacally all the while. You conservatives just love the past, don’t you? Worshiping Ronald Reagan, who left office two decades ago, and obsessing over this forty-year-old accident. As Michael Steele said, apparently non-ironically, “President Reagan would have had no patience with those who look constantly to the past.” ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/4 "2009-08-26T17:29:00Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > She’s less forgotten than she would have been had Ted not maliciously nailed her inside that car, laughing maniacally all the while. > > You conservatives just love the past, don’t you? Worshiping Ronald Reagan, who left office two decades ago, and obsessing over this forty-year-old accident. As Michael Steele said, apparently non-ironically, “President Reagan would have had no patience with those who look constantly to the past.” I’m not a conservative. This thread isn’t about Ronald Reagan, it’s about Mary Jo Kopechne. And I disagree with your cavalier attitude regarding her life. If she had lived to be an old woman she might have kids and grandkids who would remember her. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/5 "2009-08-26T17:29:55Z")
As if she’d have been remembered for anything else. Have you combed the obituaries for obscure unfortunate deaths today? Maybe you could start a thread for one of them, if this is really something other than a dig at Ted Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/6 "2009-08-26T17:30:43Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > As if she’d have been remembered for anything else. You don’t think that potential kids or grandkids would remember her for giving them life? ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/7 "2009-08-26T17:32:15Z")
I’m no fan of Ted Kennedy but 40 years is a long time. Truth be told, many of us will come to be uncomfortable with who we were 40 years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/8 "2009-08-26T17:32:47Z")
Don’t much care, just like I don’t much care about the people I don’t know whose lives were tragically cut short by car accidents this morning. You know, I personally find all the people masturbating over her corpse today a little distasteful. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/9 "2009-08-26T17:35:31Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I’m not a conservative. Right, right, you just agree with everything in the American version of their philosophy. > [@mswas](#): > > This thread isn’t about Ronald Reagan, it’s about Mary Jo Kopechne. No, it isn’t. It’s about you yammering “Ted got away with murder! Waaaahhh!” ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/10 "2009-08-26T17:36:49Z")
I’ve done far more in my life than Kopechne ever would have, and I’m not a footnote in ANY annuls of history. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/11 "2009-08-26T17:37:04Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Right, right, you just agree with everything in the American version of their philosophy. No I don’t. I pretty much think Reagan was a moron. > [@](#): > > No, it isn’t. It’s about you yammering “Ted got away with murder! Waaaahhh!” So Mary Jo Kopechne’s life is immaterial as long as you get to bash conservatives or in lieu of a conservative me? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/12 "2009-08-26T17:38:08Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I’ve done far more in my life than Kopechne ever would have, and I’m not a footnote in ANY annuls of history. That isn’t the point. I am not talking about being remembered by history. I have kids, so because of that I will be remembered at least into the next generation. ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/13 "2009-08-26T17:40:27Z")
Just out of curiosity MWAS, do your thoughts turn to J. D. Tippit every November 22? > **[J. D. Tippit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Tippit)** > > J. D. Tippit (September 18, 1924 – November 22, 1963) was an American World War II U.S. Army veteran and police officer who served as an 11-year veteran with the Dallas Police Department. About 45 minutes after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Tippit was shot and killed in a residential neighborhood in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was initially arrested for the murder of Tippit and was subsequently charged for killing Kennedy. Os ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/14 "2009-08-26T17:41:50Z")
Then you probably shouldn’t have included the line “forgotten by history” in your OP. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/15 "2009-08-26T17:42:06Z")
> [@WreckingCrew](#): > > Just out of curiosity MWAS, do your thoughts turn to J. D. Tippit every November 22? > > [J. D. Tippit - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Tippit) I am baffled as to how you think this is even pertinent. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/16 "2009-08-26T17:43:08Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Then you probably shouldn’t have included the line “forgotten by history” in your OP. People remember history. Children are people. Not everything in this life is about celebrity. Even people who are not celebrities have lives of meaning and value. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/17 "2009-08-26T17:43:33Z")
How is it not, if this is just about lives tragically cut short? ETA oh, and now you’re just completely talking out your ass. Blahblahblah tragic blahblahblah not political blahblahblah just so sad blahblahblahfishcakes. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/18 "2009-08-26T17:44:21Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > That isn’t the point. I am not talking about being remembered by history. I have kids, so because of that I will be remembered at least into the next generation. And Kopechne has a wikipedia page. She’ll be remembered until electrons stop working. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/19 "2009-08-26T17:44:27Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > She’s less forgotten than she would have been had Ted not maliciously nailed her inside that car, laughing maniacally all the while. Ted didn’t restrain her inside the car, he just avoided getting the authorities involved until he sobered up, and she wound up drowning as a result of this choice. Thankfully, the state came down on him hard with that 2 month suspended sentence. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788/20 "2009-08-26T17:45:49Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > And Kopechne has a wikipedia page. She’ll be remembered until electrons stop working. Good point. [Mary Jo Kopechne - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jo_Kopechne) > [@](#): > > Kopechne, born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,[1] was the only child of insurance salesman Joseph Kopechne and his wife, Gwen.[1] The family moved to New Jersey when she was an infant.[1] She attended parochial schools growing up.[2] > After graduating with a degree in business administration from Caldwell College for Women in New Jersey in 1962,[1][3] Kopechne moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to teach for a year at the Mission of St. Jude[1] as part of the Civil Rights Movement.[4] In 1963, she moved to Washington, D.C., to work as secretary to Florida Senator George Smathers.[1] Kopechne joined New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s secretarial staff, following his election in 1964.[1] There she worked as a secretary to the senator’s speechwriters and as a legal secretary to one of his legal advisers.[1] Kopechne was a loyal and tireless worker for Robert Kennedy, in March 1967 having stayed up all night at his Hickory Hill home to type a major speech against the Vietnam War as the senator and his aides such as Ted Sorenson made last-minute changes to it.[2][5][6] > During the 1968 U.S. presidential election, she helped with the wording of Robert Kennedy’s March 1968 speech announcing his candidacy.[2] During his campaign, she worked as one of the “Boiler Room Girls”, an affectionate name given to six young women who worked from a central, windowless location in Kennedy’s Washington campaign headquarters.[2][5][7] They were vital in tracking and compiling data and intelligence on how Democratic delegates from various states were intending to vote; Kopechne’s responsibilities included Pennsylvania.[5][7] Kopechne and the other staffers were politically savvy; they talked daily with field managers and also served as conduits for policy statements being distributed to strategically-located newspapers.[7] > Kopechne was devastated by the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy and could not return to work on Capitol Hill.[5] However, as her father later said, “Politics was her life,”[5] and in December 1968 she used her expertise to gain a job with Matt Reese Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm that helped establish campaign headquarters and field offices for politicians and was one of the first political consulting firms.[1][4][8] She was on her way to a successful professional career.[9] > She lived in the Georgetown neighborhood with three other women.[1] She was a devout Roman Catholic with a demure, serious personality, rarely drank much, and had no reputation for extramarital activities with men. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-mary-jo-kopechne/507788.md?page=2)