Ethel Kennedy, the legendary matriarch of the Kennedy family, will be remembered for her steely will, ruthless competitive spirit, and iron fist.
These traits were forged through many tragedies, including the assassination of her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, and the untimely deaths of two of her 11 children.
Ethel, 96, who died Thursday from complications from a stroke, was credited by many with stoically presiding over generations of the Kennedy family, keeping the family in order and keeping scandals out of the public eye as much as possible. are all concerned.
Her family noted how she was “even more Kennedy than the Kennedys.”
A source close to the family said, “Ethel may have been a strict disciplinarian.Even when her children became adults, she kept a strict rein on them.''
Her third son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., echoed this in a statement Thursday, noting that his mother “invented tough love” and “may be tough on her children,” but also expressed his concern for his mother's loyalty. and praised Kennedy's defense of the name. He attributes his best qualities to her.
Ethel, who devoted her life to humanitarian work after her husband's assassination in 1968, was also the social center of the Kennedy family's world.
According to Kate Storey, author of “The White House by the Sea: A Century of Kennedys,” she hosted legendary parties and dinners at her family's vacation home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, where she lived in her later years. He said he preferred living there full time. At Hyannis Port. ”
“She continued to host Thanksgiving there,” Storey told the Post. “They always post big group photos.
For years, Ethel made sure her Hyannis Port home was filled with celebrities such as Olympic gold medalist Rafter Johnson, NFL player Rosie Grier and boxer Muhammad Ali.
“There was a running joke among the staff at the facility that if you left your car door unlocked, Ethel would have someone staying in her car that night,” Storey wrote. .
In 2010, as the family's political influence waned and many families stopped coming to Hyannis Port during the off-season, Ethel decided to bring some fun into Thanksgiving and show the Kennedy children a live turkey. I made up my mind, Story writes. She sent Robert Jr., known to the family as Bobby, to buy the bird. However, the turkey escaped from the car and rampaged through the neighborhood for three days.
“It was a mess,” Storey writes. “But Ethel's plan worked. Her grandchildren were squealing with joy as they chased birds around the property…a new normal was beginning.”
But even into her 80s, Ethel continued to have a strong influence on her family's public image. When Bobby Jr.'s second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, committed suicide in May 2012, Ethel devoted much of the public attention to Mary's grieving son Connor Kennedy, then 18, and Pop. 's superstar Taylor Swift. That summer, I was invited to visit a seaside complex.
Swift had been invited to meet Ethel by her youngest daughter Rory after they met at Ethel's show. Swift wrote “Starlight,” which she said was inspired by the 1940s romance between Ethel and Robert Kennedy.
Swift spent part of the summer of 2012 in Hyannis Port, where she was photographed hanging out with Connor and visiting Mary's nearby grave.
Although the relationship didn't last, “everyone soon forgot about the negative publicity surrounding Mary Kennedy's death and the only thing people talked about in Hyannis Port was Taylor Swift,” says a source close to the family. said.
Although Ethel gave everything to her family, she had a rocky relationship with Bobby Jr., who she felt was “the reincarnation of her cheating husband,” a source said.
The Post first revealed that the former presidential candidate and current supporter of Donald Trump kept a sex diary of his conquests even during their marriage.
Bobby Jr., who is currently married to actress Cheryl Hines, was recently embroiled in a sexting scandal with New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi. reported by intermediary He also had romantic relationships with three more women, whom he knew through the anti-vaccination group Children's Defense Fund, but he denied those claims.
After his brother was assassinated in 1963, Robert Sr. had many secret meetings with actresses Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, and his sister-in-law Jackie Kennedy.
Ethel had publicly stated that she would not remarry after her husband's assassination, and was always disappointed when her family divorced. “As a self-described devout Catholic, she expected her children to marry at least once.'' ” a source told the Post.
But she wasn't a saint either. Weeks after her husband was murdered, while still pregnant with her 11th child, she became aggressive on the tennis court and seriously injured one of her opponents. She played tennis “furiously” in a doubles match with longtime friends, singer Andy William and humorist Art Buchwald, and was bitterly disappointed when she lost, kneeling on the court and throwing her head in the face. I hit him, the story says.
She added that in the rematch the next morning, she hit the ball too hard, hitting Buchwald in the face before he could even lift his racket.
Ethel Skakel was born in Chicago on April 11, 1928, to George Skakel, a Protestant coal company owner, and his wife, Ann Branach, a devout Catholic.
Ethel's family, which had six siblings, moved to Connecticut, where she attended Greenwich Academy, an all-girls school, and then Sacred Heart Convent in the Bronx. When she was 17 years old and attending Manhattanville College, her roommate Gene Kennedy introduced her to her brother Robert. Robert was dating Ethel's sister Patricia at the time.
Ethel campaigned for Robert's brother John F. Kennedy when he ran for Congress in 1946, and soon became engaged to Robert. They married in 1950 and their first child, Kathleen, was born a year later.
After her marriage, Ethel experienced several tragedies and heartbreaks, including the loss of her parents in a 1955 plane crash. In 1963, her brother-in-law, then-President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas. Three years later, she lost her brother in another plane crash in Idaho.
Later, Ethel's own husband was assassinated while running for president in Los Angeles. After he was shot by a lone gunman, Ethel tried to comfort him as he lay bleeding on the ground at the city's Ambassador Hotel.
“The Kennedy family doesn't cry,” she famously said after becoming a widow.
Before her husband was killed, Storey said she had planned a surprise renovation of their Hyannis Port home. After his death, she installed a jukebox in her garage and played loud music day and night to drown her sorrows, Storey wrote.
However, the tragedy did not end there. Ethel lost her son David to a drug overdose in 1984, and her son Michael also died in a skiing accident in 1997.
Most of her surviving children are former lieutenant governor of Maryland Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, U.S. representative from Massachusetts Joseph P. Kennedy II, and documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy. He has had a successful career in politics and media.
More recently, in 2019, Ethel grieved again after her 22-year-old granddaughter, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, died of an accidental overdose in Hyannis Port in August of that year. Storey said Ethel and Saoirse, whose favorite player was Tom Brady, spent a lot of time together watching Patriots football games on Ethel's home TV.
After her husband's death, Ethel devoted herself to a lifetime of humanitarian work, establishing the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center, which awards numerous human rights and journalism awards in his name.
The group is run by his daughter Kerry Kennedy. She also co-chairs the Gun Control Coalition and is involved with other human rights groups.
Ethel was not allowed to speak publicly, but was interviewed by Rory in a 2012 documentary in which she declared, “Introspection, I hate it.”
In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2016, he awarded then-Vice President Joe Biden the RFK Ripple of Hope Award.
“This was one of the greatest honors of my life, as I received this honor from a hero in her own right,” President Biden said in a statement about her death released Thursday.
The question of what will happen to the Kennedy family in the future and whether someone will be able to step into Ethel's shoes remains unanswered.
