“a petite strawberry blonde with pep in her step. She had confidence and a zest for life that was intriguing. … She was humble and kind, and stood firm in her beliefs. … Tough, but fun in the classroom, creating speed challenges, expecting accuracy, and rewarding generously.”[11]
By 1963, Kopechne relocated to Washington, D.C., to work as secretary for United States Senator George Smathers (D-FL). She joined the secretarial staff of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY), following his election in November 1964. For that office, she worked as a secretary to the senator’s speechwriter, and as a legal secretary to one of his legal advisers. Kopechne was a loyal worker. Once, during March 1967, she stayed up all night at Kennedy’s Hickory Hill home, to type a major speech against the Vietnam War, while the senator and his aides such as Ted Sorensen made last-minute changes to it. She enthusiastically played on the Kennedy office softball team, playing catcher.
During the 1968 U.S. presidential election, Kopechne helped with the wording of Robert F. Kennedy’s March speech that announced his presidential candidacy. During his campaign, she worked as one of the Boiler Room Girls; the affectionate nickname given to six young women whose office area was in a hot, loud, windowless location in Kennedy’s Washington campaign headquarters. They were vital in tracking and compiling data and intelligence on how Democratic delegates from various states were intending to vote; Kopechne’s responsibilities included Pennsylvania. Kopechne and the other staffers were knowledgeable politically, and were chosen for their ability to work skillfully for long, hectic hours on sensitive matters. They talked daily with field managers, and also helped distribute policy statements to strategic newspapers. She has been described as hero-worshiping the senator.
After working briefly for the Kennedy proxy campaign of George McGovern, she said that she could not return to work on Capitol Hill, saying: “I just feel Bobby’s presence everywhere. I can’t go back because it will never be the same again.” But as her father later said, “Politics was her life”. In September 1968, she was hired by Matt Reese Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm that helped establish campaign headquarters and field offices for politicians, and was one of the first political consulting companies. In the fall elections of 1968, Kopechne did work on the re-election campaign of Senator Joseph S. Clark, Jr. (D-PA), who eventually lost.
She was also assigned to recruit volunteers in Colorado for former Governor Stephen McNichols‘s run for the Senate against incumbent Senator Peter H. Dominick (R). McNichols lost his run, and Kopechne returned to Washington, D.C. By mid-1969, she had completed work for the eventually successful mayoral campaign of Thomas J. Whelan in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was on her way to a successful professional career; one of the political professionals who worked with her in Jersey City characterized her as “an exceptionally hard-working and skillful professional who knew her craft”.
Kopechne lived with three other women in the Washington neighborhood of Georgetown. She was a fan of the Boston Red Sox, and of fellow Polish-American Carl Yastrzemski. She was a devout Roman Catholic, with a demure, serious, “convent school” demeanor, and rarely drank much.
Dynastic Successions Book 