Ethel Kennedy obituary: ‘The other Kennedy widow’ faced brutal heartache and racism scandal

Ethel Kennedy helped guide America’s most famous political dynasty through tumultuous times.

She was at her husband Robert F. Kennedy’s side when he was fatally shot in LA in 1968 — less than five years after her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas.

On Thursday, her daughter, Kerry Kennedy, announced on X/Twitter that the family matriarch had died at the age of 96 from complications related to a recent stroke.

She praised her “lifelong work in social justice and human rights” and her determination to raise 11 children – and lead a clan of 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

“Please keep our mother in your hearts and prayers,” Kerry wrote.

Ethel Kennedy died Thursday of complications following a stroke, her daughter Kerry revealed on social media.

Ethel Kennedy with Robert F. Kennedy on their wedding day in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1950.

Ethel Kennedy was one of the last surviving members of the extended family generation that included President Kennedy.

For a generation of Americans, the Democratic Party clan was the closest thing to US royalty.

The JFK era was called “Camelot” because the youthful president and his glamorous wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, inspired a sense of national optimism.

Ethel was born in Chicago in April 1928, the sixth of seven children of George Skakel and his wife Ann.

Their rags to riches story led Skakel to make millions in the coal industry and move his family to Connecticut.

Ethel became friends and then roommates with Jean Kennedy, a younger sister of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, while he attended Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in New York.

She met future husband Robert during a ski trip to the Mount Tremblant Resort in Quebec, Canada, in 1945, when she was 17.

They began dating and married in June 1950. Their first child, Kathleen Kennedy, was born the following year.

Ethel suffered a tragedy in 1955 when both her parents were killed when their private plane crashed.

She supported the flourishing political careers of her husband and his brother, and enthusiastically campaigned for JFK during his successful 1960 presidential campaign.

Ethel was at home with husband Robert in November 1963 when news of JFK’s assassination in Dallas reached them.

Later, during Robert Kennedy’s own presidential campaign in June 1968, she was at his side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

The two widows: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, left, and Ethel Kennedy

Ethel Kennedy with her husband, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1962

Kennedy receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama on November 24, 2014

He had just won the Democratic presidential primary in California.

Six months after her husband’s death, Ethel gave birth to their eleventh child, Rory.

Ethel vowed never to remarry and devoted much of her life to raising her children as a single mother, according to Britannica.com.

Yet she was well aware that her husband RFK had cheated on her during their marriage.

These include his affairs with actresses Kim Novak and Lee Remick, and his sister-in-law Jackie.

The details of Ethel’s continued support for him were laid out in Larry Tye’s 2016 book “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of A Liberal Icon.”

The book said that Ethel ‘loved her husband more completely than she thought possible’ – and this meant she could look the other way.

Ethel’s relationship with JFK’s wife Jacqueline Kennedy famously got off to a bad start in the 1950s.

Jackie reportedly felt that Ethel tried to put her and other women on stage by wearing an emerald green dress while most of the guests at the formal event wore black.

Jackie left early, complaining of a “terrible headache,” according to People.

But the two women later developed a friendship and bonded after the murders of their respective husbands.

After her husband’s death, Ethel founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in 1968, which promotes human rights through litigation, advocacy and education.

The nonprofit also awards prizes to journalists, authors and others who promote human rights.

She was also active in the Coalition of Gun Control, Special Olympics and the Earth Conservation Corps.

She remained socially active into her 90s, participating in a 2016 demonstration in support of higher wages for farm workers in Florida and a 2018 hunger strike against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

When then-President Barack Obama awarded Ethel the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2014, he praised her social efforts.

“Ethel Kennedy dedicated her life to advancing the causes of social justice, human rights, environmental protection and poverty alleviation by creating countless pockets of hope to create change around the world,” Obama said.

But Ethel was not universally revered and faced accusations that she “treated her immigrant servants like dogs.”

After RFK’s assassination in June 1968, Ethel was the sole mistress of Hickory Hill, the Kennedys’ legendary estate in McLean, Virginia.

It became known as ‘Horror Hill’ because of Ethel’s tantrums and the abusive treatment of the helper.

She gained a reputation for hitting and berating immigrants in the household, extorting money from them and yelling at them like a ‘mad woman,’ causing them to flee in tears or be fired,” sources recalled.

“I really don’t think Ethel liked Hispanics or blacks,” her former secretary, Noelle Fell, told The Mail writer Jerry Oppenheimer.

Ethel Kennedy poses backstage with members of her family in 2012 at Carnegie Hall

An image of Ethel Kennedy surrounded by family celebrating her 96th birthday in April, shared by her grandson

Ethel’s eleven children were Kathleen, Joseph II, Robert Jr., David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory.

Many of her descendants became famous.

Daughter Kathleen became lieutenant governor of Maryland; Joseph represented Massachusetts in Congress; Courtney married Paul Hill, who was wrongly convicted of an IRA bomb attack; Kerry became a human rights activist and chairman of the RFK Center; Christopher ran for governor of Illinois; Max served as a district attorney in Philadelphia and Douglas reported for Fox News Channel.

Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also became a national figure, although ultimately not in the family’s liberal tradition.

He ran for president as an independent after briefly challenging President Joe Biden, and his name remained on ballots in multiple states after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.

Ethel Kennedy made no public comment on her son’s actions, although several other family members denounced him.

But the tragedy haunted Ethel and the rest of the stricken Kennedy family.

In 1984, she lost her son David, who died of an accidental drug overdose, and in 1997, her son Michael died in a skiing accident.

She divided her time between homes in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach, Florida.

Ethel Kennedy had been hospitalized on October 3 after suffering a stroke in her sleep, her family said.

She had recently enjoyed seeing many of her relatives before she became ill.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our wonderful grandmother,” Joe Kennedy III wrote on X.