Washington, DC Newsroom, October 10, 2024 / 2:20 PM

Ethel Kennedy, the wife of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and a pillar of American politics for decades, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said Thursday.

Kennedy died in her sleep Thursday morning due to “complications related to a stroke she suffered last week,” according to a statement on behalf of the Kennedy family, posted on X by her grandson Joe Kennedy III.

“She was a devout Catholic and a daily communicant,” the statement reads, adding, “We are comforted knowing that she has been 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.”

Born Ethel Skakel on April 11, 1928, Kennedy was the daughter of wealthy Protestant coal magnate George Skakel and his wife, a staunch Catholic, Ann Brannack Skakel. According to the John F. Kennedy Library, both of her parents tragically died in a plane crash in 1955.

Kennedy met her future husband, Robert F. Kennedy, at a ski resort in Canada in 1945 when she was 17 years old. The two eventually married in June 1950 at St. Mary Catholic Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Kennedy was deeply interested in politics and was a staunch supporter of her husband’s career and also campaigned on behalf of her brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy, during his presidential campaigns.

Kennedy’s husband, Robert, successfully campaigned for and won a U.S. Senate seat representing New York in 1964. He was assassinated on June 6, 1968, less than 24 hours after announcing he had won two presidential primaries in California and South Dakota.

Ethel Kennedy, who was at Robert’s side when he died, gave birth to their eleventh and final child six months later.

Immediately after her husband’s death in 1968, Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Center, dedicated to continuing his work in human rights and journalism.

She never remarried, but instead devoted the rest of her life to public service, both through the RFK Human Rights Center and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Project, a community development organization in Brooklyn, New York. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The center released a statement after her death, highlighting her extensive record as a human rights activist, as well as her perseverance and strength, which she maintained despite the losses she suffered throughout her life.

“Few would have blamed her for giving up,” the center wrote. “Yet she steadfastly raised eleven children alone, instilling in each of them a strong sense of faith, empathy, exuberance and, above all, courage.”

Kennedy is survived by nine of her 11 children — including 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – 34 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.