{{Infobox Senator |name=John F. Kerry |nationality=American |image name=John Kerry headshot with US flag.jpg | imagesize=220px |jr/sr=Junior Senator |state=Massachusetts |party=Democratic |term_start=January 3, 1985 |alongside=Ted Kennedy |preceded=Paul Tsongas |succeeded= |date of birth= |place of birth=Aurora, Colorado |occupation= attorney |residence= Boston, Massachusetts |spouse=Julia Thorne (div.)
Teresa Heinz |children=Alexandra Kerry
Vanessa Kerry
H. John Heinz IV (stepson}
Andre Heinz (stepson)
Christopher Heinz (stepson) |alma_mater=Yale University
Boston College Law School |religion=Roman Catholic |order2 = 66th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts |term_start2 =January 6, 1983 |term_end2 = January 3, 1985 |governor2 = Michael Dukakis |predecessor2 = Thomas P. O'Neill III |successor2 = Evelyn Murphy (1987) |order3 = Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship |term_start3 = January 4, 2007 |term_end3 = |predecessor3 = Olympia Snowe |successor3 = |term_start4 = June 6, 2001 |term_end4 = January 3, 2003 |predecessor4 = Kit Bond |successor4 = Olympia Snowe |term_start5 = January 3 |term_end5 = January 20, 2001 |predecessor5 = Kit Bond |successor5 = Kit Bond |signature = JohnKerrySignature.JPG |website = Senator John Kerry |allegiance= United States of America |branch= United States Navy |serviceyears=1968–1972 |rank= Lieutenant, Junior grade |commands=PCF-44, PCF-94 |unit=USS Gridley
Coastal Squadron 1 |battles=Vietnam |awards=Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart (3)}}

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American politician who is currently serving his fourth term as the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. As the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, he was narrowly defeated in the 2004 presidential election by the Republican incumbent President George W. Bush. Senator Kerry is currently the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He is a Vietnam veteran, and was a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War when he returned home from service. Before entering the Senate, he served as a District Attorney and Lt. Governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis, also a future Democratic Presidential nominee.

Family history and childhood years

John Forbes Kerry was born at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, outside Denver, where his father, Richard Kerry, a Second World War Army Air Corps test pilot, had been undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Kerry's family returned to their home state of Massachusetts two months after his birth.

Family background

Kerry is the second child of Richard John Kerry, a Foreign Service Officer and an attorney for the Bureau of United Nations Affairs, and Rosemary Forbes Kerry, a World War II nurse and member of the wealthy Forbes family. He has three siblings: two sisters, Diana (born in 1947) and Margery (aka Peggy; born in 1941) and a brother, Cameron (born in 1950), who is a litigator in Boston. Cameron Kerry converted to Judaism on his marriage.