Ethel Kennedy, philanthropist and widow of Robert F. Kennedy, died at age 96

Ethel Kennedy, the Widow of Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday of complications from a stroke, the Kennedy family announced on X. She was 96 years old.

“It is with our hearts filled with love that we announce the passing of our mother, Ethel Kennedy,” read the family statement, shared by Ethel’s daughter Kerry Kennedy, her grandson, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, and others. “She died this morning as a result of a stroke she suffered last week.”

After the tragic assassination of her husband and her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy spent her life as a philanthropist, founding the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation months after her husband’s death. In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Kennedy and her husband Bobby had eleven children – Kennedy was pregnant with her eleventh child, Rory, when her husband was assassinated in 1968. Kennedy was with her husband when he was shot by Sirhan Sirhan as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in California while campaigning for the presidency.

Kennedy was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut by her parents, coal magnate George Skakel and his wife Ann Brannack. Her parents tragically died in a plane crash in 1955.

Kennedy spent much of her life at her home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, one of the three houses that make up the Kennedy Compound. She and her husband moved into the house in 1955, which was next door to the house where Bobby grew up and behind the house his brother John and wife Jaqueline would later buy. Kennedy hosted the Cape’s Robert F. Kennedy Golf Tournament each year and was a fixture in the city’s Fourth of July parade.

Kennedy is the mother of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Although many of RFK Jr.’s siblings commented on his run for the presidency, calling it “dangerous,” as well as his subsequent support for Republican candidate Donald Trump, Kennedy called it “dangerous.” considered it a “treason” and never spoke publicly about her son’s failed candidacy.

The family’s statement on Kennedy’s death continued: “In addition to a lifelong work for social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, as well as numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly.” She was a devout Catholic and communicated daily, and we are comforted to know that she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy. her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law, Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie.”