Ethel Kennedy, a longtime human rights activist and the widow of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday after suffering a stroke last week.
She was 96.
Former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, as well as Kerry Kennedy, announced the news on X, formerly Twitter.
“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 wrote in a post.
He added: “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 our mother in your hearts and prayers,” Kerry Kennedy added.
Ethel Kennedy supported her husband through his successful Senate campaign and when he later ran for president in 1968, CNN reported.
She was beside her husband as he was gunned down at a Los Angeles hotel just after winning California’s Democratic primary. She was three months pregnant when her husband was murdered.
The loss of her husband did not slow her down as she became an environmental and human rights activist in her own right.
She founded the nonprofit organization Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights to advanced the same causes as her late husband.
In 2014, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Barack Obama.
Kennedy took part on a hunger strike in 2018 to protest the then-Trump administration’s separation of families at the US-Mexico border.
“Generations of Americans did not toil and sacrifice to build a country where children and their parents are placed in cages to advance a cynical political agenda,” she said at the time.
She was born in Chicago in 1928 to a large family and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.
She met her future husband in 1945 through his sister, Jean Kennedy, on a ski trip. They married in 1950 and had 11 children.
Throughout her life, she experienced the loss of family members through tragic circumstances.
Her father, George Skakel, and mother, Ann Skakel, were killed in an airplane accident in 1955.
Her brother died in a plane crash in 1966 and her son David died in 1984 from an accidental drug overdose.
Another son, Michael, died in a skiing accident in 1997.
Her granddaughter Saoirse Kennedy Hill died in 2019 of an accidental overdose in 2019, and another granddaughter, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, drowned in 2020 with her 8-year old son in a canoe accident.
Many Kennedy admirers expressed their condolences on X, formerly Twitter.
I’m sorry she had to endure this past 18 months. She gave back so much and her life was hard enough. Rest in peace Ethel Kennedy and thank you for your service to the country. pic.twitter.com/YOSNJ2skuc
— 𝔻𝕖𝕓𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕙(@DADiClementi) October 10, 2024
