Ethel Kennedy arrives for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights' Ripple of Hope Gala at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York on November 18, 2009. She died on Thursday. File Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/UPI |
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Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Ethel Kennedy, the widow of presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and sister-in-law to former President John F. Kennedy, died on Thursday of complications from a stroke she suffered last week, her grandson Joe Kennedy III said. She was 96.
The daughter of coal mogul George Skakel, she founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization after his death and spent a lifetime working on many of the causes her slain husband embraced.
"Along with a lifetime's work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly," Joe Kennedy III, one of her 34 grandchildren and U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland, said on X.
She was pregnant at the time of her husband's assassination, who was on the campaign trail in 1968, and gave birth six months later to Rory, the last of the couple's 11 children. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Obama on Thursday described Ethel Kennedy as "a dear friend with a passion for justice, an irrepressible spirit, and a great sense of humor."
"She touched the lives of countless people around the world with her generosity and grace, and was an emblem of enduring faith and hope, even in the face of unimaginable grief," the former president said in a statement.
Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines this year by mounting an independent run for president, only to drop out and endorse former Republican President Donald Trump, angering some members of the Kennedy family who remain staunchly Democrat.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his mother died surrounded by several of her children in Boston, as well as with friends.
"Even as she declined in recent months, she never lost her sense of fun, her humor, her spark, her spunk and her joie de vivre," Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
"She wrung joy from every moment, but for 56 years she has spoken with yearning of the day she would reunite with her beloved husband. She is with him now," he said.
The Kennedys were married in 1950. Robert F. Kennedy was serving as attorney general under his brother's presidency when the senior Kennedy was killed by an assassin as well in 1963.
One of her children, David Kennedy, died of a drug overdose in 1984 and another, Michael Kennedy, died in a skiing incident in 1997. Ethel Kennedy's nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a 1999 plane crash with his wife, Carolyn.
The 2012 documentary Ethel shared insights about the Kennedy political dynasty through Ethel Kennedy's point of view.
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Legendary record producer, musician, composer and film producer Quincy Jones participates in a hand and footprint ceremony immortalizing him in the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on November 27, 2018. Jones, who worked with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra and who earned 28 Grammy Awards, died at the age of 91 on November 3. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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