Joan Bennett Kennedy, the elegant and resilient first wife of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, has passed away peacefully in her sleep at her Boston home. She was 89.

Behind the polished family portraits and the carefully maintained public smiles, Joan’s life was shaped by both privilege and profound personal struggle. A classically trained pianist with a master’s degree in education, she often said that music became her sanctuary — a coping mechanism inspired by Jacqueline Kennedy, who once advised her to “turn to the piano” whenever the pressures of …