Ethel Kennedy, Widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Human Rights Advocate, Dies at 96

(L-R) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ethel Kennedy, President of RFK Center Kerry Kennedy, and Mariah Kennedy Cuomo attend the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights 2013 Ripple Of Hope Awards dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City on Dec. 11, 2013. Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Robert F. Kennedy Center For Justice And Human Rights

Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and human rights advocate, died on Oct. 10 at the age of 96.

The Kennedy family matriarch had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke in her sleep last week.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” former Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy III posted on social media platform X, describing her as a devout Catholic and a daily communicant. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.”

Her family said she was one of the last remaining members of a generation that included President John F. Kennedy. In the final days of her life, she enjoyed the company of many relatives.

“She has had a great summer and transition into fall,” reads a family statement issued after she was hospitalized. “Every day, she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier, and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family. It has been a gift to all of us and to her as well.”

Ethel Kennedy was born on April 11, 1928, in Chicago. Her father, George Skakel, was a self-made millionaire in the coal industry. She was just 17 years old when she met her future husband during a ski trip.

A towering figure of the Kennedy dynasty, Ethel Kennedy bore witness to many family tragedies. Her parents died in a plane crash in 1955, followed by her brother in a separate crash in 1966.

On June 5, 1968, she was by her husband’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles shortly after delivering a speech celebrating his victory in the California presidential primary. Less than five years earlier, her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated in Dallas.

She would endure even more heartbreaks over the years, including the deaths of two of her 11 children—David, who died of a drug overdose in 1984, and Michael, killed in a skiing accident in 1997. In 1999, her nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, Carolyn, died in a plane crash en route to the wedding of her youngest daughter, Rory.

Despite the personal loss, Ethel Kennedy remained a driving force behind the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, an organization she founded in 1968 in the months between her husband’s death and the birth of their youngest child. The organization honors her husband’s legacy and promotes human rights and social justice causes across the world.

“She marched with Cesar Chavez, sat with Native Americans at Alcatraz, boycotted fast food businesses with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, demonstrated outside the South African and Chinese embassies, pulled tires out of the Anacostia River, trekked up mountainous terrain in Mexico to visit unjustly convicted prisoners, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge with civil rights leader John Lewis, confronted dictator Daniel arap Moi in Nairobi and raised millions of dollars for human rights work around the globe, to name just a few,” the Foundation said in a statement commemorating her life.

“A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Robert F. Kennedy medal, she meant more to us than we can ever express.”

In a similar vein, President Joe Biden released a statement highlighting Ethel Kennedy’s legacy as a social activist.

“For over 50 years, Ethel traveled, marched, boycotted, and stood up for human rights around the world with her signature iron will and grace,” Biden said.

“Through it all, Ethel’s story was the American story.”

Ethel Kennedy is survived by nine children and a large extended family of 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews. Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently suspended his 2024 presidential campaign to endorse former President Donald Trump.