--- title: Robert F. Kennedy: Rare and Classic Photos of an Undaunted Man description: Of the three Kennedy brothers -- John, Robert and Edward -- Bobby best embodied the contradictions at play within that famed family canonical: https://time.com/3586360/robert-f-kennedy-rare-and-classic-photos-1964/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-29T16:23:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:03.301Z og:title: Robert F. Kennedy: Rare and Classic Photos of an Undaunted Man og:description: Of the three Kennedy brothers -- John, Robert and Edward -- Bobby best embodied the contradictions at play within that famed family og:url: https://time.com/3586360/robert-f-kennedy-rare-and-classic-photos-1964/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt057f740967394b9e/698768e055a859aa00a841ce/141114-robert-kennedy-11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Robert Kennedy at home in 1964 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Robert F. Kennedy: Rare and Classic Photos of an Undaunted Man twitter:description: Of the three Kennedy brothers -- John, Robert and Edward -- Bobby best embodied the contradictions at play within that famed family twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt057f740967394b9e/698768e055a859aa00a841ce/141114-robert-kennedy-11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Robert F. Kennedy: Rare and Classic Photos of an Undaunted Man > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 29, 2014 4:23 PM UTC  Robert F. Kennedy eats breakfast with his family, 1964. Robert F. Kennedy eats breakfast with his family, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 29, 2014 4:23 PM UTC Of the three Kennedy brothers — John, Robert and Edward — who ascended to the national political stage in the 1950s and ’60s, it was arguably the middle brother, Bobby, who best embodied the enormous contradictions at play within that famed (and, it sometimes seems, cursed) American family. There was, for example, RFK’s fraught relationship with liberals — and with American liberalism in general. As the author and historian [Sean Wilentz once wrote](http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/01/09/reviews/000109.09wilent.html) while reviewing a largely unflattering biography of Kennedy in the New York _Times_: --- > “” --- That Bobby Kennedy was, like his brothers and many of his other relatives, past and present, a titanically driven individual is hardly news. There’s a reason, after all, that he’s still despised today, five decades after his death, by some liberals and most conservatives: he did not fit into a neat, ideological box and — then as now — neither side knew what to do with a man who refused to act and speak according to their expectations and their rules. Then there was his relationship with Lyndon Johnson — a man who, according to virtually everyone who knew both men, hated Bobby Kennedy with an intensity matched only by RFK’s loathing for his brother’s successor as president. But Kennedy also had an intellectual and — in public, at least — an emotional poise that makes most present-day American politicians seem glib and trifling by comparison. (Is there a sitting U.S. senator or representative whom one can picture quoting Herodotus or Sophocles, from memory, as Kennedy so often did?) Of course, like his brothers — especially John — Robert Kennedy was also able to immediately and powerfully connect with crowds in a way that most politicians can only envy, and there were certainly people who saw greatness in him and in his future. “He is one of the half-dozen men in the country today qualified for top political leadership,” one of Lyndon Johnson’s advisers told LIFE writer Robert Ajemian. “He really cares about right and wrong. He cares about people.” Here, LIFE.com shares photos — most of which never ran in LIFE magazine — of Kennedy and his extended and immediate family in 1964\. The pictures, by LIFE’s George Silk, capture a man who, as Robert Ajemian wrote in the magazine’s July 3, 1964, issue, “had shouldered massive burdens” in the six months since his brother John was gunned down in Dallas the previous November. --- > “” --- But even surrounded by so many loved ones, and so busy with speeches and appearances around the country, the rawness of the loss of his older brother was, it seems, never far away. After a speech in Pittsburgh, a reporter asked Kennedy, “What do you miss most about your brother?” “Kennedy looked startled,” Ajemian reported, “and stared at the reporter as he sought the exact answer. His face softened and he said, ‘Just that he’s not here.'” Four months after the LIFE cover story, Robert F. Kennedy was elected as the Democratic U.S. Senator from New York. He served until June 6, 1968, when [he was assassinated by a gunman named Sirhan Sirhan](http://life.time.com/history/robert-kennedy-assassination-photographs-by-bill-eppridge-june-1968/#1), while campaigning in Los Angeles for his party’s presidential nomination. Robert Kennedy was 42 — four years younger than John Kennedy was when he was killed. Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk).  Robert Kennedy with his three dogs, Hickory Hill, Va., 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert F. Kennedy, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Under a tree hung with swings at Hickory Hill, Bob and Ted have a last talk about Bob's possible plans for entering the New York Senate race." George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "On his way to the office, Kennedy stands in hall at Hickory Hill with wife, Ethel, scanning the headlines while his daughter Kerry, 4, tugs for a goodbye kiss." George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "John Kennedy Jr., who plays at Hickory Hill often, hands Braumas, a Newfoundland, rubber bone as he says hello. In distance, sister and cousin ride ponies." George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Ethel finishes her meal as Michael, 6, holds Christopher, one, in lap and 7-year-old Courtney tempts baby by testing his food. Joseph, 11, looks out window." George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Caroline Kennedy, legs tangled in a cousin's, tumbles off a submerged Pierre Salinger. They lost a watery jousting match with Bob and two of his daughters." George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "John Kennedy's daughter has eagerly joined Bob's family. She loves to push Christopher in his stroller, stops to cling for a moment to her Uncle Bob. 'She's my pal,' he says fondly. But there is a special feeling for Caroline who, at 6, understands the tragedy of her father's death as her brother John does not." George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy with his niece, Caroline; his son, Christopher (in pram); and his daughter, Courtney, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE: "Bob swings his nephew on terrace. 'Jack made John the mischievous, independent boy he is,' says Jackie Kennedy. 'Bobby is keeping that alive.'" George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert F. Kennedy eats breakfast with his family, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy at home with some of his kids, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy and Pierre Salinger joust with kids in Kennedy's pool, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy, Pierre Salinger and kids at RFK's Virginia home, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  John Kennedy Jr. (left) and his sister Caroline and their cousins David, Kerry and Courtney Kennedy, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy with John Kennedy Jr. and his daughter Courtney, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy with his daughter, Kerry, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel putting their one-year-old son, Christopher, down for a nap, 1964. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy Jr., Virginia, 1964. 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