Joan Kennedy, who married into one of America’s foremost political dynasties and spent much of her life wrestling with alcoholism while caught up in the tragedies and tempests that stamped the Kennedy family, died Wednesday at her home in Boston. She was 89.

Her death was confirmed by Steve Kerrigan, the chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. He did not cite a cause.

The former wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was known as Ted, Joan Kennedy was shy and reserved compared with her competitive, athletic and often boisterous in-laws. Ill-prepared for life in the reflected glare of Kennedy klieg lights, and haunted by her own family history of alcoholism, she found herself caught up in high-stakes politics, a faithless marriage and an on-again, off-again struggle with her own drinkin

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