Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, dies at age 96

By Bill Trott

WASHINGTON, 2024 (Reuters) – Ethel Kennedy, a longtime human rights defender who endured a series of tragedies including the assassination of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, and the untimely deaths of two of their 11 children, died on Thursday . at age 96, her grandson Joseph Kennedy III said in a social media post.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our wonderful grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She passed away this morning from complications related to a stroke we suffered last week,” Kennedy said in a post on X.

Kennedy, who was a devout Catholic, sought to continue her husband’s work by founding the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Center.

She was the mother of former independent presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently broke from his family’s traditional Democratic affiliation to support Donald Trump.

Ethel had been by her husband’s side throughout his career and lay next to him when he lay in a hotel kitchen in 1968, fatally wounded by an assassin.

Ethel Skakel was introduced to Robert, or “Bobby,” by her Manhattanville College classmate — Kennedy’s sister Jean — during a ski trip in 1945. Kennedy was dating Ethel’s sister at the time, but later contacted her.

They married in 1950 and Ethel proved to be a good fit for the Kennedy clan. Like the Kennedys, her family was wealthy, Catholic and boisterous – although Republican.

In 1956, Ethel and Robert were expecting their fifth child and needed a larger home. Robert’s brother, President-elect John F. Kennedy, sold them Hickory Hill, a 13-bedroom mansion outside Washington in McLean, Virginia, that would become an outbuilding of the romanticized “Camelot” era of Kennedy’s presidency.

Hickory Hill served as a city hall, intellectual salon and zoo, as well as the stage of many football games.

The Kennedys were known for their parties, which brought in not only politicians but also athletes, artists, executives and entertainers ranging from Judy Garland to John Lennon. One night there was a poetry writing competition when Robert Frost was a guest and on another night Harry Belafonte taught guests how to dance the twist.

“Hickory Hill was the most vibrant social center in Washington,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger in “Robert Kennedy and His Times.” “It was difficult to resist the raffish, unpredictable, sometimes uncontrollable Kennedy parties.”

Ethel and Robert were crushed when John was murdered in Dallas in 1963. Robert resigned as attorney general nine months later to successfully run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, representing New York. In 1968, he decided to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Shortly after midnight on June 5 of that year, Kennedy’s entourage left the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, just after Kennedy won the crucial Democratic primaries. As they exited through the kitchen, 24-year-old Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian-Palestinian, shot Kennedy. He cited Kennedy’s support for Israel as the reason, and remains in prison to this day.

Ethel, then pregnant with the couple’s eleventh child, was separated from her husband in the crowd but managed to reach him as he lay on the kitchen floor. Kneeling, she spoke softly to him and tried to shoo photographers away.

She kept an almost constant vigil by his side until he died early on June 6. Witnesses said Kennedy never lost her composure through it all.

Ethel Kennedy also endured other family tragedies. Her parents died in a plane crash in 1955, and she lost a brother in a plane crash in 1966.

Son David died of a drug overdose in 1984, while son Michael died in a skiing accident in 1997. RFK Jr. had drug problems that led to a heroin arrest and in 2019, her granddaughter Saoirse died after an apparent overdose.

In 2002, Ethel’s cousin, Michael Skakel, was convicted of murdering 15-year-old Martha Moxley 27 years earlier in a case featured in a series of TV documentaries.

Ethel took on many causes championed by her late husband, including fighting poverty, social justice and protecting the environment. Notable projects included cleaning up Washington’s Anacostia River and restoring New York’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood.

In 2014, President Barack Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“She is an emblem of enduring faith and hope, even in the face of unimaginable loss and unimaginable grief,” Obama said at the ceremony. “As her family will tell you…don’t mess with Ethel.”

Asked in a 2014 NBC interview what had inspired her, Kennedy said: “First, Bobby and his life, and of course Jack.”

Rory, the youngest child of the Kennedys, made a documentary about her mother in 2012. As Ethel reflected on the tragedies of her life, she said, “No one gets a free ride.”

(Reporting by Bill Trott; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Diane Craft)