Kennedy was five days shy of her sixth birthday when her father was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The following year, Caroline, her mother, and brother John F. Kennedy Jr. settled on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she attended school. Kennedy graduated from Radcliffe College and worked at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she met her future husband, exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg. She later earned a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School. Most of Kennedy's professional life has spanned law and politics, as well as education reform and charitable work. She has also acted as a spokesperson for her family's legacy and co-authored two books with Ellen Aldermanon on civil liberties.