John F. Fitzgerald him the nickname 'Honey Fitz'. His daughter Rose married Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a son of his political rival P. J. Kennedy. In old age, Fitzgerald helped his grandson John F. Kennedy to win his first seat in congress. John Francis Fitzgerald was born in the North End of Boston, to Irish businessman/politician Thomas Fitzgerald of Bruff, County Limerick, and Rosanna Cox of County Cavan. He was the fourth of twelve children. Both of his sisters, Ellen and Mary, and his eldest brother, Michael, died in infancy. Fitzgerald's brother Joseph had severe brain damage from malaria and barely functioned. Only
F. Scott Fitzgerald his childhood primarily in Buffalo, New York, occasionally in West Virginia (1898–1901 and 1903–1908) where his father worked for Procter & Gamble, with a short interlude in Syracuse, New York, (between January 1901 and September 1903). Edward Fitzgerald had earlier worked as a wicker furniture salesman; he joined Procter & Gamble when the business failed. His parents, both Catholic, sent Fitzgerald to two Catholic schools on the West Side of Buffalo, first Holy Angels Convent (1903–1904, now disused) and then Nardin Academy (1905–1908). His formative years in Buffalo revealed him to be a boy of unusual intelligence with a keen