John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald, Memorialized in Boston’s North End

John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald (1863-1950), U.S. Congressman, mayor of Boston and newspaper publisher, was one of the local politicians who helped define the Boston Irish persona in the 20th century. Fitzgerald is best remembered in history as the grandfather of President John F. Kennedy. His daughter, Rose Fitzgerald, married Joseph P. Kennedy from East Boston, spawning the Kennedy political dynasty that dominated Boston for most of the 20th century.

Born in Boston’s North End on February 11, 1863, Fitzgerald was one of 12 children born to Irish immigrant Thomas Fitzgerald of Limerick and Mary Josephine Hannon of Acton, MA. He worked his way up from the Boston Common Council in 1892 to state senate in 1893. In the congressional primary held in September 1894, Fitzgerald beat sitting Congressman Joseph H. O’Neill, a popular Democrat who had held the seat since 1889.

When Mayor Patrick Collins died suddenly in 1905, Fitzgerald became mayor of Boston, and served terms in 1906-7 and 1910-13. One of his great rivals during this time was James Michael Curley, a fellow Irish-American politician who was ascending into politics during the same era. 

He earned his nickname ‘Honey Fitz’ from his melodious singing voice, and loved to sing at political rallies, weddings and even funerals.

Fitzgerald was also the publisher of a weekly Boston newspaper, the Republic, described on the masthead as “an Irish-American Family journal,” and was also involved in real estate and insurance.

Fitzgerald died on October 2, 1950 at the Hotel Bellevue in Boston after a long illness. At his bedside were his wife Josephine, two sons, John and Thomas, and their wives, along with his nurse. His daughter Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was in Paris at the time of his death.

In 1957, city officials memorialized Fitzgerald with a plaque in his honor along the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway named in his honor; it was also known as the Central Artery. The highway was later dismantled to make way for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, and was moved to the John F. Fitzgerald Surface Road at the corner of North Street, where it stands today.