Biden eulogizes Ethel Kennedy as ‘hero’ who put her own stamp on country
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden praised the late Ethel Kennedy in deeply personal terms at a memorial service on Wednesday, hailing the wife of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy as “a hero in her own right, full of character, full of integrity and empathy” who helped him through one of his darkest periods from his life.
Biden was joined by former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at the memorial service in Washington. All three reflected on Ethel Kennedy’s humor and warmth, her work in defense of social causes and her unflappable determination in the wake of tragedy.
“We are a better nation and a better world because of Ethel Kennedy,” Biden said.
Biden became emotional as he recalled the Kennedy family who helped him cope more than 50 years ago when his wife, 30-year-old Neilia, and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash that involved a tractor was run over. trailer while shopping for a Christmas tree. The couple’s two sons, Beau and Hunter, who were just four and three years old at the time, were also in the car and were seriously injured.
“Along with Teddy (Kennedy), she helped me through a time when I didn’t want to linger,” Biden said. “I didn’t want to be part of Congress, the Senate. … The fact is that Ethel, as she did for the country, helped my family find a way forward, with principle and purpose.”
Ethel Kennedy died on Thursday at the age of 96 following complications related to a stroke earlier this month. She raised their eleven children after her husband was murdered in 1968.
She was at Robert F. Kennedy’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. Her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated in Dallas less than five years earlier.
Obama said her life was marked by more tragedy and heartbreak than most people could bear.
“I think she could have been forgiven if at any point she had withdrawn from public life or allowed bitterness to fester after all she and her family had been through,” Obama said. “But that’s not what Ethel did, because that’s not who she was.”
Obama said she became a passionate advocate for everything from juvenile justice to civil rights and environmental protection. He described her as “a big dose in a small package.”
“Well into her 80s, she was still marching for something,” Obama said.
The service was held Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, the same church where John F. Kennedy’s funeral was held in November 1963. Members of the Kennedy family gathered earlier this week to attend her private funeral.
The Kennedy matriarch was the mother of Kathleen, Joseph II, Robert Jr., David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory. She was one of the last surviving members of a family generation that included President John F. Kennedy.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend remembered her mother as fierce and cheerful, rigorously loyal and reflexively dismissive of authority.
“Stop signs were always just suggestions,” she said.
And while other mothers took their children to the playground, she recalled her mother taking her to the Senate Rackets Committee, where “Dad was investigating the mafia.”
“I think my first sentence was, ‘I refuse to answer that question because it might incriminate me,’” Kathleen Kennedy Townsend joked.
“She thought it was important that we knew what Dad was doing, and only then did she take us to the botanical gardens and the natural history museum,” she says.
Clinton said he was grateful Ethel Kennedy lived to be 96.
“She was a great fireball of constant energy. It was great to be around her,” he said.
During one of the lighthearted moments during the service, Clinton recalled calling him after Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate in the same seat as Robert Kennedy.
“Ethel called me and said if I need instructions on how to become a Senate spouse from New York, she would be happy to give them for free,” Clinton said.
Ethel Kennedy was the daughter of a millionaire who married the future senator and attorney general in 1950. At 40, she had experienced more death than most people experience in their entire lives.
She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights shortly after her husband’s death, advocating for causes such as gun control and human rights. She rarely spoke about her husband’s murder.
The center she founded continues to promote human rights through litigation, advocacy, education and inspiration, and awards annual prizes to journalists, authors and others who have made significant contributions to human rights. She was also active in the Coalition of Gun Control, Special Olympics and the Earth Conservation Corps.
The memorial service included remarks from some of her children, prayers from dozens of her grandchildren and musical performances from Kenny Chesney, Sting and Stevie Wonder.
Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., recalled meeting her shortly after his father was assassinated in April 1968, just two months before she would lose her husband. He said it was no coincidence that his father found a woman strong enough to weather the enormous challenges of the civil rights movement. And it was no coincidence that Bobby Kennedy found a woman and partner who could handle the slings and arrows that surrounded his leadership.
“One thing I learned from my mother is that next to every great leader is a loyal and very strong partner who refuses to be intimidated or distracted by the many side dramas that come with fame,” King said.