Ethel Kennedy, human rights advocate and widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, died on Thursday after suffering a stroke last week and being hospitalized. She was 96.
Her death was announced by her grandson Joe Kennedy III in a post on X.
“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week. 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,” said the former Massachusetts Congressman.
“She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant, and we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie. Please keep her in your hearts and prayers.”
Born Ethel Skakel on April 11, 1928, in Chicago, Kennedy’s life was marked by tragedy even before Sirhan Sirhan made her a widow in 1968 by gunning down her husband while he was running for president, NBC News reports.
(Original Caption) Robert Francis Kennedy and his bride, the former Ethel Skakel, and the groom’s sister,Eunice Kennedy, who was a bridesmaid at the wedding, are enjoying a joke at the sumptuous reception at the Skakel estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. Young Kennedy and his bride were wed in a colorful ceremony at St.Mary’s Roman Catholic Church with many prominent socialites on hand for the ceremony. He is the son of the former Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy. The youngsters will honeymoon in Hawaii. (Getty)
Kennedy’s parents, coal magnate George Skakel and his wife, Ann Brannack Skakel, were both killed in a 1955 plane crash.
She was then by Robert F. Kennedy’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just after winning the Democratic presidential primary in California.
Her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated in Dallas less than five years earlier.
In 2019, she was grieving again after granddaughter Saoirse Kennedy Hill died of an apparent drug overdose, AP reports.
“One wonders how much this family must be expected to absorb,” family friend Philip Johnson, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, told the Boston Herald after Michael Kennedy’s death.
More to come…
