Patricia Lawford, sister of JFK, dies at 82

Boston: Patricia Kennedy Lawford, the sister of President John F Kennedy who forged a marriage between politics and Hollywood with her wedding to actor Peter Lawford, has died in her New York home. She was 82.

Lawford died Sunday of complications from pneumonia, said a spokeswoman for Democratic Sen Edward M. Kennedy.

"My sister Pat is irreplaceable," Kennedy said in a statement. "Everyone who knew Pat adored her. She was admired for her great style, for her love and support of the arts, her wit and generosity and for the singular sense of wonder and joy she brought into our lives."

In his 2005 best-seller, Symptoms of Withdrawal, her actor son, Christopher Lawford, wrote of his mother that "her lightheartedness and vibrancy made her my grandfather's favourite." But he said she also felt resentment toward her father "at not being allowed fully to live up to her potential."

Musicals

She met the handsome British-born actor Peter Lawford through her brother, the future president, in 1949. They were married in 1954 and had four children.

Lawford is best known for roles in such musicals as Easter Parade (1948) and Royal Wedding (1951), both with Fred Astaire, the 1954 Judy Holliday comedy, It Should Happen to You, and Exodus (1960), with Paul Newman.

In the '50s and '60s, he was a member of Frank Sinatra's circle of friends dubbed the Rat Pack, appearing in the original version of Ocean's Eleven in 1960.