Ethel Kennedy

Ethel Kennedy (née Skakel; April 11, 1928 – October 10, 2024) was an American human rights advocate and orphaned the widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. She was also a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 11, 1928, to George Skakel and Ann Brannack. Her father was of Dutch descent and founded the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, later a division of SGLCarbon, while her mother was of Irish ancestry. The Skakel family was Catholic, and Ethel was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she attended Greenwich Academy and graduated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in the Bronx in 1945.

In September 1945, Ethel began college studies at Manhattanville College, where she was a classmate of her future sister-in-law, Jean Kennedy. She earned a bachelor's degree from Manhattanville in 1949. She met Robert F. Kennedy during a ski trip to Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec in December 1945. Initially, Robert Kennedy was dating Ethel's older sister, Patricia, but after their relationship ended, Robert began dating Ethel.

Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy became engaged in February 1950 and married on June 17, 1950, in a Catholic ceremony at St. Mary Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. Following their marriage, the family settled in the Washington, D.C., area, where Robert worked for the Justice Department after law school at the University of Virginia. In 1952, Ethel and Robert moved to a rooming house in Boston, Massachusetts, where she helped with her brother-in-law John Kennedy's Senate campaign. She also wrote her college thesis on "Why England Slept."

In 1955, both of Ethel's parents died in a plane crash in Union City, Oklahoma. The Kennedys purchased Hickory Hill estate in McLean, Virginia, in 1956, which included a 13-bedroom mansion on six acres. They held social gatherings there, and Ethel managed many of these events. The couple also owned a home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod.

Robert Kennedy was appointed Attorney General by President John F. Kennedy in 1960, and in 1962, Ethel and Robert participated in a 28-day goodwill tour of 14 countries, serving as informal representatives of the President and First Lady. On November 22, 1963, she learned of President Kennedy's assassination from her husband after he informed her by phone.

Ethel supported Robert Kennedy's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1964. She encouraged him to run for president in 1968, and biographer Evan Thomas characterized her as his most consistent advocate for a presidential bid. The couple had 11 children: Kathleen (born 1951), Joseph (1952), Robert Jr. (1954), David (1955), Courtney (1956), Michael (1958), Kerry (1959), Christopher (1963), Maxwell (1965), Douglas (1967), and Rory (1968). Her daughter Kathleen served as lieutenant governor of Maryland; Joseph was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; Robert Jr. sought the presidency in 2024 and became U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Her grandson, Joseph Kennedy III, also served in Congress.

Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan. Ethel was present at the scene and was pregnant with her daughter Rory at the time. After her husband's death, Ethel publicly declared she would not remarry. She was active in philanthropic and social causes, founding the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in 1968, now known as Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

In her later years, Ethel Kennedy resided at the Kennedy Compound in Massachusetts and in Palm Beach, Florida. She endorsed Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries and supported various social initiatives. Her life was documented in the 2012 film "Ethel," directed by her son Rory Kennedy.

Ethel Kennedy died in Boston on October 10, 2024, at the age of 96, following hospitalization for a stroke. Her funeral took place at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts, and she was later interred at Arlington National Cemetery beside her husband. Honors awarded to her include the Robert F. Kennedy Medal in 1981 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. In 2014, a bridge over the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., was also named in her honor.