Ethel Kennedy, the matriarch of America’s most prominent political family, took over the fight for civil justice after witnessing the assassination of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, on the night of his victory in the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary. He passed away at the age of 96.
“It is with loving hearts that we announce the passing of our wonderful grandmother, Ethel Kennedy,” former Congressman Joe Kennedy III, her grandson, announced Thursday. “She passed away this morning from complications from a stroke she suffered last week.”
FILE – Sen. Robert Kennedy poses with his wife Ethel outside the Senate chamber on October 13, 1965 in Washington.
AP photos, files
Ethel Kennedy, the mother of seven sons and four daughters, including a daughter who was pregnant when her husband was murdered, never remarried and was promoted by her murdered brother-in-law. He raised his children to follow his beliefs. President John F. Kennedy: “To whom much is given, much will be required.”
After her husband was assassinated in 1968, she said, “To achieve anything, everyone has to show a little courage. You only live once on this earth. You have to give it your all.” ” he said.
When President Barack Obama awarded Ethel Kennedy the highest civilian honor, the Congressional Medal of Freedom, in 2014, he said Kennedy’s “love for family is matched only by her dedication to her country.” Ta.
“She is a symbol of unyielding faith and unyielding hope in the face of unimaginable loss and unimaginable grief,” President Obama said at a ceremony at the White House. “And she has touched the lives of countless people around the world with her generosity and grace.”
FILE – Ethel Kennedy, widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, attends the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Ceremony on Tuesday, June 5, 2018, at the Capitol in Washington.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
According to his family, Kennedy suffered a stroke in his sleep on October 8, 2024, was hospitalized, and later died.
Born Ethel Sheik in Chicago in 1928, her life was marked by public service, resilience, and a tireless dedication to tragedy.
She was born in Illinois, but she and the rest of the Skakel family moved to New England during her childhood as her father’s energy business boomed. Growing up in a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, Ethel Skakel led a privileged life.
That life took her to Manhattanville College in New York, Purchase, now Manhattanville College, where she befriended a classmate named Gene Kennedy, who introduced her to the school in 1950. He introduced his younger brother, Bobby, who married Robert F. Kennedy.
FILE – In December 1960, then-President-elect John F. Kennedy stands surrounded by his family at his parents’ home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
AP photos, files
The couple moved to Washington, D.C., where Bobby Kennedy worked as a lawyer at the Justice Department, and soon welcomed daughter Kathleen, the first of their 11 children.
Her husband’s career was thriving, and her brother-in-law, John Kennedy, had been elected to the U.S. Senate. However, Ethel Kennedy soon faced tragedy. Her parents both died in a mid-air explosion in their private plane in 1955.
Even as she faced grief, she immersed herself in her growing family. Then the 1960s arrived, and Ethel Kennedy found herself in the intimate circle of events that would become etched in American history.
In 1960, her brother-in-law JFK was elected president and he selected his brother Robert Kennedy as attorney general. Then, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and the Kennedy family and the nation fell apart.
However, Robert Kennedy’s desire for politics and public service remained undiminished. During his presidential campaign, Robert Kennedy spoke about his wife in his victory speech for the Indiana primary, saying, “She made a huge difference in this campaign, and she made a huge difference in me.” Ta.
FILE – Ethel Kennedy and her new son Douglas Harriman Kennedy (right) hold 2-year-old Christopher Kennedy as they leave Georgetown University in Washington on April 13, 1967.
AP Photo/Henry Burrows, File
However, two months later, on June 5, 1968, after winning the California primary, Robert Kennedy was giving a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he was killed by an assassin’s bullet. Ethel Kennedy, who witnessed her husband’s murder, was widowed at the age of 40, with 10 children and pregnant with the couple’s 11th. She will never get married again.
She has long opposed the parole of her husband’s assassin, telling the California Parole Board in 2021 that “Bobby is a man who has worked with us to ‘tame human savagery and make life calmer in the world.’ I believed that we should strive to do so.”
“He wanted to end the Vietnam War and unite people to build a better, stronger country. Above all, he wanted to be a good father and a loving husband,” she further wrote. Ta. “Our family and our country have suffered an indescribable loss due to the inhumanity of one man. We believe in the kindness that saved his life. But by taming his violent behavior, we should not give him another chance to terrorize.”
After her husband’s death, Ethel Kennedy became involved in social causes such as gun control and founded the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center to continue her husband’s work for justice and human rights.
But tragedy was never far away. In 1984, Ethel Kennedy’s son David died of a drug overdose. In 1997, her son Michael died in a skiing accident. And in 2002, Ethel Kennedy sent a handwritten petition asking for leniency for her nephew, Michael Skakel, who was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for killing a teenage girl in Greenwich nearly 30 years earlier. Ta.
Despite her high profile, Ethel Kennedy was extremely private, refusing to give interviews for years. However, in 2008, she publicly supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The following year, President Obama paid tribute to Ethel Kennedy’s brother-in-law, Sen. Ted Kennedy.
In early 2012, 83-year-old Ethel Kennedy gave a toast at the Sundance Film Festival, where her family gathered for the premiere of the documentary “Ethel.” The director who recorded her life was her youngest daughter Rory, who was born six months after Robert Kennedy’s murder.
Rory Kennedy never knew her father, but she got to know her mother better during the production of “Ethel.”
“Her life was truly amazing,” Rory Kennedy said. “Through the ups and downs and the days, she has lived her life to the fullest. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone like her.”
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