By Karen Foerstel
Congressional Quarterly

Forty years after her father, John F. Kennedy, won the nomination for U.S. president during the Democratic convention in Los Angeles, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg will address the party when it again gathers in Los Angeles for its first convention of the new millennium.

Her speech - which will take place a year after the death of her younger brother John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash - is a rare public appearance for one of the most private of the Kennedy clan. She is scheduled to speak the second night of the convention, along with her uncle, Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Their dual appearance will parallel the address her brother and uncle made at the 1988 Democratic convention in Atlanta. The younger Kennedy brought the delegates to their feet with his introduction, a speech that prompted speculation about his political future. Democrats hope Schlossberg will spark equal enthusiasm this year.

Schlossberg, a lawyer and author, is the only living child of President Kennedy. She has three children - President Kennedy's only grandchildren.

As a child, Schlossberg was constantly followed by photographers and seen regularly in newspapers riding on her pet pony Macaroni or skipping through the Oval Office. She was just 5 years old when her father was assassinated in Dallas. He was buried two days before her sixth birthday.

As she grew into adulthood, Schlossberg let her brother become the public face of the Kennedy family legacy while she stayed out of the limelight.

A graduate of Harvard with a law degree from Columbia University, Schlossberg worked as an intern in her uncle's Senate office during college.

She later worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1995, she published "The Right to Privacy," a book that explained constitutional privacy issues.

Four years earlier, she co-authored the book "In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action," a national best seller that detailed the history and legal significance of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

After the death of her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in 1994, Schlossberg followed in her mother's footsteps to become a prominent figure in New York cultural circles. She became an honorary chairman of the American Ballet Theatre and a board member of the Citizens Committee for New York City, which supports local volunteer service groups. She also took over as president of the Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston.

In 1989, Schlossberg helped found the library's Profile in Courage Awards, an honor named after her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book and presented to public officials for acts of political bravery. In recent years, Schlossberg and her brother personally presented the awards during annual ceremonies.

In 1999, they gave the award to Sens. Russell D. Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., for their efforts to overhaul the country's campaign finance system.

See also: Post Profile