Ethel Kennedy — the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and the mom of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — is being memorialized in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, with the eulogy delivered by President Biden. Former President Barack Obama additionally spoke on the service.
The human rights advocate died in her sleep after a stroke. She was 96.
Obama known as her a “massive dose in a small bundle,” and a “spitfire from a younger age.” She was enthusiastic about all the pieces, Obama mentioned, from juvenile justice reform to civil rights.
“As severe as Ethel was about righting wrongs, she by no means appeared to take herself too critically,” Obama mentioned.
Ben Curtis / AP
The matriarch of the storied Kennedy household is survived by 9 youngsters, 34 grandchildren and lots of great-grandchildren. Her grandson, Joe Kennedy III, mentioned she was a “robust girl who has led a remarkably fulfilling life.”
Members of the Kennedy household gathered Monday for her funeral in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Mr. Biden has praised Ethel Kennedy for her resilience and dedication.
“Ethel Kennedy was an American icon—a matriarch of optimism and ethical braveness, an emblem of resilience and repair,” Mr. Biden mentioned in an announcement after her dying. “Dedicated to household and nation, she had a backbone of metal and a coronary heart of gold that impressed thousands and thousands of Individuals, together with me and Jill. We have been blessed to name her an expensive pal.”
Ethel Kennedy, who had 11 youngsters, raised them after her husband was assassinated in 1968 throughout his presidential marketing campaign. Her son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was working for president in 2024 as an unbiased, however he suspended his marketing campaign in August and endorsed former President Donald Trump.
Born on April 11, 1928, Ethel Kennedy suffered numerous tragedies in her lengthy life. In 1955, each of her mother and father died when their personal airplane crashed. Her son, David Kennedy, died of a drug overdose at 28. One other son, Michael Kennedy, was killed in a snowboarding accident at 39. And each her husband and her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, have been assassinated.
She based the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights basis in October 1968, shortly after her husband’s assassination.
