Trivia

Daughter of secretary Ann Brannack (1892-1955) and businessman George Skakel (1892-1955), both killed in an airplane crash in October 3, 1955.

Has six siblings: Georgeann Skakel (1918-83), James Curtis Skakel (1921-98), George Skakel Jr. (1922-66), Rushton Skakel Sr. (1923-2003), Patricia Sistine Skakel (1925-2000) and Ann Skakel (1933-2023).

Eleven children with Robert F. Kennedy: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (b. 1951), Joseph Kennedy (b. 1952), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (b. 1954), David (b. 1955), Courtney (b. 1956), Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (b. 1958), Kerry Kennedy (b. 1959), Christopher (b. 1963), Matthew (b. 1965), Douglas (b. 1967) and Rory Kennedy (b. 1968).

Grandmother of Saoirse Kennedy-Hill and Joe Kennedy III.

Sister-in-law of John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jean Kennedy Smith, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Sargent Shriver, Patricia Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy.

Daughter-in-law of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Kennedy.

Younger sister of Rushton Skakel Sr.. Aunt of Tommy Skakel and Michael Skakel, Maria Shriver, Christopher Lawford, Caroline Kennedy, John Kennedy Jr..

Ex-sister-in-law of Peter Lawford, Joan Bennett Kennedy.

Ex-mother-in-law of Andrew Cuomo and Victoria Gifford Kennedy.

Was pregnant with daughter Rory Kennedy when husband Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama on 24 November 2014.

Her parents were killed in a 1955 plane crash.

Mother of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Courtney Kennedy, Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, Maxwell Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, Douglas Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

She campaigned for Robert's older brother John F. Kennedy in his 1946 campaign for Congress in Massachusetts' 11th congressional district, and she wrote her college thesis on his book Why England Slept.

Shortly after her husband's assassination in 1968, she founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a non-profit charity working to reach his goal of a just and peaceful world.

Ethel Kennedy was an American human rights advocate, the wife of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and sixth child of George and Ann Skakel (née Brannack).

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan honored Kennedy with the Robert F. Kennedy medal in the White House Rose Garden.

In 2012, Kennedy appeared in a documentary about her life, directed by her youngest child, daughter Rory. The documentary, entitled Ethel, covers Kennedy's early political involvement, her life with Robert F. Kennedy, and the years following his death when she raised eleven children on her own. It features interviews with Ethel and her children interspersed with family videos and archival photos.

On October 3, 2024, Kennedy was hospitalized after a stroke.

She was a practicing Catholic who often attended mass.

Ethel first met Jean's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, during a ski trip to Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec in December 1945. During this trip, Robert began dating Ethel's older sister Patricia, but after that relationship ended, he began to date Ethel.

Kennedy hosted a $6-million fundraising dinner for Obama at Hickory Hill in June 2008. The $28,500-a-plate dinner was headlined by former Democratic presidential candidate and DNC chairman Howard Dean.

In September 1945, Ethel began her college education at Manhattanville College, where she was a classmate of her future sister-in-law Jean Kennedy.

In 2014, a bridge over the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Ethel Kennedy Bridge in her honor, in recognition of her advocacy for environmentalism and social causes in the District of Columbia.

She received a bachelor's degree from Manhattanville in 1949.