Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver DSG (July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009) was an American philanthropist[1] and a member of the Kennedy family. She was the founder of the Special Olympics, a sports organization for persons with intellectual disabilities. For her efforts on behalf of disabled people, Shriver was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
August 11, 2009 (aged 88)
St. Francis Xavier Parish Cemetery, Centerville
She was a sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. She was married to Sargent Shriver, who was the United States Ambassador to France and the final Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1972. They had several children including broadcast journalist Maria Shriver.
Early life, education, and early career[edit]
Eunice Mary Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1921.[2] She was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and Rose Fitzgerald.[3] Her siblings included U.S. President and Senator John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith.[4]
Eunice Kennedy was educated at the Convent of The Sacred Heart, Roehampton (in London), and Manhattanville College. After graduating from Stanford University in 1943 with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology,[5] she moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for the Special War Problems Division of the U.S. State Department. Kennedy eventually moved to the U.S. Justice Department as executive secretary for a project dealing with juvenile delinquency. During her time in Washington, she shared a townhouse in Georgetown with her brother John, then a U.S. Congressman.[6] Kennedy served as a social worker at the Federal Industrial Institution for Women for one year before moving to Chicago in 1951 to work with the House of the Good Shepherd women's shelter and Chicago Juvenile Court.[2]
Political involvement[edit]
Shriver actively campaigned for her elder brother, John, during his successful 1960 U.S. presidential election.[38][39]
Although Shriver was a Democrat, she was a vocal supporter of the anti-abortion movement.[40] In 1990, Shriver wrote a letter to The New York Times denouncing an abortion rights group for having used a quotation of President Kennedy's words out of context in support of their position.[41][42] Shriver was one of several prominent Democrats – including Governor Robert P. Casey of Pennsylvania and Bishop Austin Vaughan of New York – who took out a full-page The New York Times advertisement opposing "abortion on demand" during the 1992 Democratic Convention (the Party adopted a 1992 platform that emphasized its support for abortion rights).[43][44] Shriver was a supporter of several anti-abortion organizations: Feminists for Life of America,[45] the Susan B. Anthony List, and Democrats for Life of America.[46]
Despite being a Democrat, Shriver supported her Republican son-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger's successful 2003 Governor of California election.[47][48]
On January 28, 2008, aged 86, Shriver was present at American University in Washington, D.C., when her brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, announced his endorsement of Barack Obama's 2008 Democratic U.S. presidential campaign.[49]