Ethel Kennedy, Widow of Robert F. Kennedy, Dead at 96
Fifty six years after she saw her husband gunned down in the kitchens of LA’s famed Ambassador Hotel, Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and mother to their 11 children died Thursday, having suffered a stroke last week. She was 96. Born in Chicago on 11 April 1928 to George Skakel and Ann Brannack Skakel, Ethel’s father made his fortune in coal.
In 1945, Ethel Skakel met Robert Francis Kennedy at a Canadian ski resort in Quebec. At the time, he was said to be dating her elder sister. In any event, the pair hit it off and married 5 years later and welcomed their first child, a daughter, Kathleen, in 1951. Tragedy struck in 1955 when George and Ann Skakel both perished in a plane crash. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, RFK moved his family to New York and successfully fan for the US Senate. By 1968, he was campaigning to become the next President. It wasn’t to be. Bobby and Ethel’s last child, Rory, was born six months after the assassination.
Ethel never remarried. Her grandson, Joe Kennedy, III confirmed her death, issuing the following statement via Twitter: “It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week." She was preceded in death by her husband, Bobby; sons, David (d. 1983), Michael (d. 1997), and her granddaughter, Saoirse Kennedy Hill (d. 2019).