Carolyn Bessette became part of one of America's best-known families when she married John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996. Bessette grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Boston University in 1988. An occasional model, she eventually became a publicist for fashion designer Calvin Klein in New York City, where she met Kennedy. Bessette and Kennedy were married on 21 September 1996 on Cumberland Island, Georgia. The couple, along with Bessette's older sister Lauren Bessette, were killed when a small airplane piloted by Kennedy crashed near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts on 16 July 1999.

Extra credit: Bessette is sometimes confused with her sister-in-law, Caroline Kennedy.