They couldn’t let Mary Kennedy RIP. Mary Kennedy’s dead body has been removed from the Kennedy family’s section in the cemetery. Click below for a photo of the layout and for the full story.
They couldn’t just let Mary Richardson Kennedy rest in peace.
The estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was buried near the Kennedy clan’s Hyannis Port compound over the objections of her siblings, was dug up last week and moved to a remote part of St. Francis Xavier Cemetery.
Instead of spending eternity buried near Camelot members Eunice and Sargent Shriver — RFK Jr.’s aunt and uncle — Mary was shunted about 700 feet away to a lonely hilltop on the other end of the cemetery.
Gravedigger Frank Maki, who oversaw the plot switch, said Mary’s husband wanted her moved to an area where the Kennedy family is now negotiating to buy 50 plots.
“He (Robert) didn’t realize how crowded the area was until after the funeral, and he wanted to have the ability to lay his wife to rest among her family members,†Maki said. “He opted for an area of the cemetery where there is room for future expansion.â€
But there are no other family members — Kennedy’s or Mary’s — buried there right now.
In fact, Mary is all alone in a plot close to the cemetery entrance — after resting alongside the Shrivers for seven weeks.
Mary’s siblings didn’t know their sister was uprooted and moved to the cemetery’s hinterlands until contacted by the Daily News, their lawyer said.
“We were unaware of this,†said Patricia Hennessey, who represented the Richardsons in their attempt to have Mary buried closer to her children’s year-round home in Westchester County. “And we were not informed about it.â€
Questions about the grave switch were relayed to RFK Jr. by a close friend, but he did not issue a response.
“I can’t comment on that,†said attorney Steve McSweeney, who fought the Richardsons on behalf of Bobby to have Mary buried at the cemetery in Centerville, Mass.
Many of the Kennedys are buried in Brookline, Mass.
President John F. Kennedy; his wife, Jackie, and his brothers Sens. Robert and Edward Kennedy are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mary, 52, who battled drug and alcohol addiction and was despondent over her impending divorce from Bobby, hanged herself in May at her barn in Bedford, Westchester County.
Shortly after she died, Bobby found himself locked in an astonishing family feud with Mary’s siblings over where she should be buried. Mary’s brothers and sisters sued to have her buried in Westchester, so her four children could come visit.
But Bobby prevailed in court and seized her body.
Now Mary is buried beneath a sickly oak tree where there is a small statue of the Virgin Mary looking over her grave and still no marker identifying her. There are also a couple of small U.S. flags and two other religious statues.
Word of the surprising plot switch came on the same day the Daily News reported that Mary might have changed her mind at the last minute about hanging herself.
Her autopsy report revealed that her fingers were caught between her neck and the noose when she was found dead on May 16 in her barn in Bedford.
The autopsy also revealed that there were at least three antidepressants in her blood when she died.
Meanwhile, Bobby Kennedy has moved on. He is dating “Curb Your Enthusiasm†actress Cheryl Hines and was recently photographed with her for the first time since Mary’s death at a Kennedy wedding on Cape Cod.
