Julia Thorne

Julia Stimson Thorne (September 16, 1944 – April 27, 2006) was a writer and the first wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry. Thorne was born in New York City. She was the daughter of Alice Smith Barry and Landon Ketchum Thorne, Jr. Her brothers are Landon Ketchum Thorne III of Beaufort, South Carolina and her twin brother David Hoadley Thorne of Brookline, Massachusetts. She spent much of her childhood in Rome and attended the international school, Mar... more

Julia Stimson Thorne (September 16, 1944 – April 27, 2006) was a writer and the first wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry. Thorne was born in New York City. She was the daughter of Alice Smith Barry and Landon Ketchum Thorne, Jr. Her brothers are Landon Ketchum Thorne III of Beaufort, South Carolina and her twin brother David Hoadley Thorne of Brookline, Massachusetts. She spent much of her childhood in Rome and attended the international school, Marymount in Rome while her brother David attended the Overseas School of Rome. Her father had been appointed to a diplomatic post and was publisher of the The Voice of the DAILY AMERICAN. She attended the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia. She took classes at the New York School of Interior Design and Radcliffe College. Thorne met Kerry in 1963 at her family's estate on Long Island. Kerry was a Yale classmate of Thorne's twin brother David. Thorne married Kerry on May 23, 1970 and divorced on July 25, 1988, after a six-year separation.... less