1. Ethel Kennedy was an American human rights advocate.
27 Facts About Ethel Kennedy
1. 2.
Ethel Kennedy was the wife of US senator Robert F Kennedy, a sister-in-law of US president John F Kennedy, and a daughter of businessman George Skakel.
3.
Ethel Kennedy was the sixth of seven children, with a younger sister named Ann and five elder siblings: Georgeann, James, George Jr.
4.
Ethel Kennedy was of Dutch descent and a Protestant while Ann was of Irish ancestry and practiced the Catholic faith.
5.
Ethel Kennedy attended the all-girls Greenwich Academy and graduated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in the Bronx in 1945.
6.
In September 1945, Ethel began her college education at Manhattanville College, where she was a classmate of her future sister-in-law Jean Kennedy.
7.
Ethel Kennedy campaigned for Robert's older brother John F Kennedy in his 1946 campaign for Congress in Massachusetts' 11th congressional district and wrote her college thesis on his book Why England Slept.
8.
Robert Kennedy and Ethel Skakel became engaged in February 1950 and were married on June 17,1950, in a Catholic ceremony at the St Mary Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.
9.
Robert and Ethel Kennedy held many gatherings at their home and were known for their impressive and eclectic guest lists.
10.
On November 22,1963, Ethel Kennedy learned of John's assassination from her husband.
11.
Ethel Kennedy had answered the phone, identified the caller as Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J Edgar Hoover, and handed the phone to Robert, who then informed her of the shooting.
12.
In 1964, Ethel Kennedy supported her husband while he campaigned for and won a seat in the United States Senate, representing New York.
13.
Ethel Kennedy urged her husband to enter the Democratic primary for the 1968 presidential election.
14.
Ethel Kennedy was frequently pregnant during her 18-year marriage, giving birth to 11 children: Kathleen in 1951, Joseph in 1952, Robert Jr.
15.
Ethel Kennedy outlived two of her sons, David and Michael, who respectively died from a 1984 drug overdose and a 1997 skiing accident.
16.
Shortly after midnight on June 5,1968, Robert F Kennedy was mortally wounded by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; he died the following day at age 42.
17.
Ethel Kennedy was present at the scene and was three months pregnant with daughter Rory at the time.
18.
Ethel Kennedy founded the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in 1968.
19.
In February 2001, Ethel Kennedy visited Rodolfo Montiel and another peasant activist at their jail in Iguala, presenting Rodolfo with the Chico Mendes Award on behalf of American environmental group the Sierra Club.
20.
In March 2016, Ethel Kennedy was among hundreds who marched near the home of Wendy's chairman Nelson Peltz in Palm Beach, Florida, as part of an effort by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farm workers' group, to convince the company to pay an additional one cent per pound of tomatoes to increase the wages of field workers.
21.
Ethel Kennedy publicly supported and held fundraisers at Hickory Hill for numerous politicians that included Virginia gubernatorial candidate Brian Moran.
22.
Ethel Kennedy hosted a $6 million fundraising dinner for Obama at Hickory Hill in June 2008.
23.
In 2012, Ethel Kennedy appeared in a documentary about her life, directed by her youngest child, daughter Rory.
24.
Ethel Kennedy died in Boston on October 10,2024, at age 96, after being hospitalized for a stroke she had the week prior.
25.
Ethel Kennedy's funeral was held four days later at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts.
26.
Ethel Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside her husband, Robert.
27.
That same year, Ethel Kennedy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama for her dedication to "advancing the cause of social justice, human rights, environmental protection, and poverty reduction by creating countless ripples of hope to effect change around the world".