Ethel Kennedy dies at the age of 96 in the United States

On October 10, Ethel Kennedy, the elder of the most famous US political family, the widow of Robert Kennedy, died in the United States at the age of 96, ABC News reported. On October 8, she was hospitalized with a stroke.

Ethel Kennedy (before her marriage – Skakel) was born on April 11, 1928 in Chicago, in the family of a businessman. Her parents died in a plane crash in 1955.

Ethel spent her childhood in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her family lived on a large estate. In 1945, she entered Manhattanville College, where she met Jean Kennedy, the sister of her future husband, Robert Kennedy. In 1949, Ethel graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree. Soon she married Robert Kennedy. During their 18 years of marriage, Robert and Ethel had 11 children. Ethel herself, even before her marriage, began to help her husband in political affairs – first during the congressional elections, and subsequently during the presidential elections.

Robert Kennedy was US attorney general when President John F. Kennedy, his older brother, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Soon Robert was elected to the US Senate. In 1968, he ran for president. On June 5, 1968, he was assassinated while making a speech as the winner of the California primary.

Ethel Kennedy never remarried. She is survived by her two sons and one granddaughter.

In 2014, US President Barack Obama presented Ethel Kennedy with the country’s highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal.