Family Life

08.11.09 | FL News Team

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of former President John F. Kennedy, has died at age 88 after being hospitalized for the past several days in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Born on July 10, 1921, Shriver was the fifth of nine children born to Joseph and Rose Kennedy, whose other children include the late Senator Robert Kennedy and current Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. Shriver was a champion of the rights of people with mental disabilities and in 1968 founded the Special Olympics for the developmentally disabled. She is survived by her husband, Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr, who she married in 1953 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Shriver's family has released a statement saying, quote, "her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe and they in turn are her living legacy."

Shriver's daughter, Maria, is married to actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shriver, a lifelong Democrat, supported her Republican son-in-law's successful run for office. During the 1992 Democratic presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, she was one of several prominent Democrats, including Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey and New York Bishop Austin Vaughan, to sign a letter to the "New York Times" protesting the Democratic Party's support of abortion in its official party platform.