Kennedy (P.J.) is born in East Boston.

The son of Patrick and Bridgit (Murphy) Kennedy, Patrick P.J. Kennedy attends Sacred Heart School and the Lyman School, then goes to work as a longshoreman at 14 after his father’s death. He buys the first of three taverns in 1879 and a liquor business, becomes the political boss of Ward Two, marries Mary Hickey in 1887,* and moves to 151 Meridian Street in 1888. Kennedy serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1885-1890) and Senate (1891-1892), and becomes one of the founders of the Columbia Trust company Bank. He subsequently moves to 165 Webster Street, then to Winthrop. He dies there on May 18, 1929, and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden.