John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 2nd child of Joseph p. kennedy SR. and Rose kennedy, named after his grandpa on his mothers side, John Fitzgerald and was mayor of boston. As a child John (JFK) was very prone to getting sick — at 2 and a half years old when Rose was about to give birth to rose marie (known as Rosemary) — the birth left John's mother, Rose bedrideen for 3 weeks — John had scarlet fever Nand was near death, at the time the hospitals near him were not accepting children with scarlet fever, his grandfsther was mayor of boston and got john a spot in the Boston hospital, nearly 500 kids at the time had scarlet fever and the hospital only had about 125 beds so John F Fitzgerald helped save Johns life after getting him a bed.