Ethel Skakel Kennedy is an American socialite.
She is also the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a prominent member of the Kennedy
family.
Early life Ethel Skakel was born in Chicago to businessman
George Skakel and secretary Ann Brannack, who were killed when the private plane they
were traveling in crashed near Union City, Oklahoma.
She was the Skakels' third daughter and sixth child, having five older siblings, Georgeann,
James, George Jr., Rushton, and Patricia, and one younger sister, Ann.
George was a Protestant of Dutch descent while Ann was an Irish Catholic immigrant.
Ethel and her siblings were raised Catholic in Greenwich, Connecticut.
George Skakel was the founder of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation, now a division of SGLCarbon.
She attended the all-girls Greenwich Academy in Greenwich, as well as the Convent of the
Sacred Heart in Manhattan.
In September 1945, she began her college education at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart,
where she was classmates with Jean Ann Kennedy.
Ethel first met Jean's brother, Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy during a ski trip to Mont
Tremblant Resort in Quebec in December 1945.
At the time, he was dating Ethel's elder sister, Patricia.
After Kennedy and Patricia's relationship ended, he began dating Ethel.
She campaigned for his elder brother John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy in his 1946 campaign
for United States Congress, and wrote her college thesis on his book Why England Slept.
Marriage and children Robert and Ethel became engaged in February
1950, and were married on June 17, 1950, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenwich.
Her wedding dress and bridal party gowns were created by noted New York City fashion designer
Mamie Conti.
As newlyweds, the couple moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where they lived while Robert Kennedy
finished his last year at the University of Virginia Law School.
The couple eventually had eleven children, the last of whom was born after Senator Kennedy
was assassinated.
After Robert F. Kennedy graduated with his law degree, the family settled in the Washington,
D.C., area and Bobby went to work for the Department of Justice.
That path did not last long, as Kennedy was asked by his family to manage his brother
John Kennedy's successful 1952 Senate campaign in Massachusetts.
Throughout the 1950s, he worked for the federal government in investigatory roles for the
United States Senate.
In 1956, the Kennedys purchased Hickory Hill from Bobby's brother Jack and his wife, Jackie.
They needed a larger house, since Ethel was pregnant with their fifth child, Courtney.
This enormous 13-bedroom, 13-bath home was situated on 6 acres in McLean, Virginia.
Robert and Ethel Kennedy held many gatherings at their home.
Whether it was a pool party or a formal dinner party, the guest list was impressive and eclectic.
Journalist Roger Mudd recalled meeting John Lennon at one such party.
Other notable invitees included the Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, entertainer
Judy Garland, dancer Rudolf Nureyev and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who found himself
thrown into the pool fully clothed where Ethel Kennedy was also already swimming fully clothed.
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan;
Kennedy died in early hours of June 6.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national day of mourning.
In 1969, Sirhan was convicted of Robert F. Kennedy's murder and sentenced to death.
In 1972, the sentence was transmuted to life imprisonment after the California Supreme
Court invalidated that state's death penalty as it existed at that time.
Following her husband's assassination in 1968, Ethel Kennedy stated publicly she would never
marry again.
For a time, she was escorted to dinners, parties and the theater by singer and family friend
Andy Williams.
She continued to live at the family home, Hickory Hill, in McLean, Virginia, until December
2009, when it was sold for $8.25 million.
Political involvement During the 2008 Democratic Party presidential
primaries, Ethel Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama.
Kennedy has publicly supported and held fundraisers at Hickory Hill for numerous politicians,
including Virginia gubernatorial candidate Brian Moran.
For Obama, Kennedy hosted a $6-million fundraising dinner at Hickory Hill in June 2008.
The $28,500-a-plate dinner was headlined by former Democratic presidential candidate and
DNC chairman Howard Dean.
Family involvement Ethel Kennedy was among the chief mourners
at the public funeral for her brother-in-law Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy on August 29, 2009.
At the funeral Mass, Kennedy placed the pall on her brother-in-law's casket along with
sister-in-law Jean.
Media involvement Ethel Kennedy agreed to be in a documentary
about her life that her daughter Rory directed.
The film, titled Ethel, is a personal portrait of Ethel Kennedy’s political awakening,
the life she shared with Robert F. Kennedy, and the years following his death when she
raised their eleven children on her own; it features candid interviews with Ethel and
seven of her children intercut with historical footage and personal videos.
In August 2014, Kennedy nominated President Obama to do the Ice Bucket Challenge as part
of an effort to raise awareness about ALS.
The nomination video was first posted on her son, Maxwell Kennedy's, Facebook page.
References Notes
Further reading Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr., Robert Kennedy
and His Times, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, ISBN 0-618-21928-5
Taraborrelli, J. Randy.
Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot.
Warner Books: 2000.
ISBN 0-446-52426-3 External links
Ethel Kennedy at the Internet Movie Database American Experience: RFK People & Events -- From
PBS The Documentary Film - Ethel