Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

WILKES-BARRE — ABC-TV will air a show Tuesday night — “The Girl in the Car” — about Mary Jo Kopechne, the woman who died died July 18, 1969, when the 1967 Oldsmobile she was riding in, driven by Sen. Ted Kennedy, went off a narrow, unlit bridge into Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island, just off Martha’s Vineyard near the town of Edgartown, Mass.

Georgetta Nelson-Potoski, Mary Jo’s cousin, is featured in the show that she hopes will tell the world about who Mary Jo was and what her true legacy should be.

The show airs Tuesday night at 10 p.m. on WNEP-TV, Channel 16.

“The show was taped a couple of months ago,” Nelson-Potoski said. “The slant is to talk about what Mary Jo’s position was back then of a young, successful woman in a man’s world. Mary Jo was a mentor and a role model for other young women.”

Kopechne was 28 when she died. She would have turned 29 on July 26, 1969. She was buried from St. Vincent’s Church in Plymouth and is buried in the parish cemetery on Larksville Mountain.

“Mary Jo wanted to get ahead,” Nelson-Potoski said. “She was interested in creating a women’s movement. Chappaquiddick is like a footnote to her life. Now people can see her for who she really was — they will see her value and that she was a very caring person.”

Nelson-Potoski and her son, William Nelson, spearheaded the effort to create the Mary Jo Kopechne Scholarship that is awarded at Misericordia University every year.

Nelson-Potoski and her son co-wrote a book — “Our Mary Jo” — that tells the story of Kopechne with no mention of the tragic incident that claimed her life. Proceeds from book sales help fund the scholarship in Mary Jo’s name at Misericordia.

The book tells the reader about Mary Jo’s life — it details who she was, what she liked and even speculates on what she would be doing today.

A movie, “Chappaquiddick,” was released in April 2018, and details the incident’s impact on Kennedy’s career.

“How wonderful this will be to have people learn about Mary Jo and remember her for who she truly was and not for just being the girl in the car,” Nelson-Potoski said.

Kopechne
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_Mary-Jo-Kopechne.jpg.optimal.jpgKopechne

By Bill O’Boyle

[email protected]

Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.