Joan Kennedy

Joan Kennedy was the pseudonym of Mabel Alice Morrison, née Gibbs (born Shutford, Oxfordshire, 12 April 1884; died St. Helier, Jersey, 28 August 1965), who was an English journalist and writer of more than 70 romance novels.

Early life

Mabel Alice Gibbs was the third of eight children born at Shutford, Oxfordshire, to John Kennedy Gibbs, a carpenter and wheelwright, and his wife, Sarah Tustain Gibbs, née Ward.

Two of her sisters were also reported to make a living by writing: Violet Louisa Gibbs (1880–1966), who wrote novels and articles under her married name, Mrs Stanley Wrench; and Nell Winifred Kennedy Gibbs (1895–1969), the wife of Frank J. Lamburn (1872–1935), an editor of Pearson's Weekly. Another sister, Muriel Gibbs (1890–1976), submitted essays and stories to The Gentlewoman, a weekly magazine for women. Her niece, Margaret Stanley-Wrench (1916–1974), was a poet.

Career Gibbs started in journalism writing articles on flower arranging for the Daily Chronicle in 1913. By 1915, she was writing articles for women readers under the name Joan Kennedy for the Evening News. Kennedy's by-line first appeared in the Sunday Mirror in May 1916, but she didn't write regularly for the newspaper until 1919. As a female journalist, she was able to interview many female actors of the day, including Tallulah Bankhead and Mary Pickford. She also reported that she wrote opinion articles for newspapers under the name of her grandfather.

After being isolated in Jersey during the German occupation of the Channel Islands between 1940 and 1945,