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Jean Kennedy Smith
Smith (left) with Vicki Kennedy in 2008
25th United States Ambassador to Ireland
In office June 17, 1993 – September 17, 1998
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	William Henry Gerald FitzGerald
Succeeded by	Michael J. Sullivan
Personal details
Born	Jean Ann Kennedy (1928-02-20) February 20, 1928 (age 84) Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality	American, Irish
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Stephen Edward Smith (1956–1990, his death)
Relations	Parents: Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth (née Fitzgerald) Kennedy see also Kennedy family
Children	Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. (born 1957) William Kennedy Smith (born 1960) Amanda Mary Smith (born 1967) Kym Maria Smith (born 1972)
Alma mater	Manhattanville College
Profession	Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic

Jean Ann Kennedy Smith (born February 20, 1928) is an American diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to Ireland. She is the eighth of nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald and is their last surviving child. She is the sister of the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Smith is the founder of Very Special Arts (VSA),^[1] an internationally recognized non-profit dedicated to creating a society where those with disabilities can engage with the arts. In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama for her work with VSA and the disabled.^[2]

Early life and family life[link]

c.1953

Born Jean Ann Kennedy in Boston, Massachusetts, on her elder sister Kathleen's eighth birthday, she has been described as the shyest and most guarded of the Kennedy children. Her mother said of her youngest daughter, "She was born so late, that she only was able to enjoy the tragedies, and not the triumphs." She attended Manhattanville College (at the time a Sacred Heart school, and still located in Manhattanville), where she met and befriended her two future sisters-in-law: Ethel Skakel (who married Robert F. Kennedy in 1950) and Joan Bennett (who married Edward M. Kennedy in 1958).

On May 19, 1956, she married Stephen Edward Smith in a small chapel of the Roman Catholic Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. The Smiths maintained a lower profile than some other members of the extended Kennedy family. During the early 1960s, they settled in New York City. Smith gave birth to two sons, Stephen Edward Smith, Jr. (born 1957) and William Kennedy Smith (born 1960), and adopted two daughters, Amanda Mary Smith (born 1967) and Kym Maria Smith (born 1972 in Vietnam).

Smith and her husband were present at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, when Sirhan Sirhan shot and fatally wounded her brother U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy after he had won the Democratic 1968 California U.S. presidential primary.

Career[link]

Campaigning[link]

Smith was intricately involved with the political career of her older brother John F. Kennedy, working on his 1946 Congressional campaign, his 1952 Senate campaign, and ultimately his presidential campaign in 1960. She, along with her siblings, helped Kennedy knock on doors in primary states like Texas and Wisconsin and on the campaign trail played the role of sister more than volunteer, citing her parents’ family lesson of “working together for something.”^[3]

Very Special Arts[link]

In 1974, Smith founded Very Special Arts, now known as VSA, the international organization on art and disabilities affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the non-profit has affiliates in 60 countries and across the United States dedicated to creating a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts. Annually, VSA reaches over 5 million people.^[4] Her book, Chronicles of Courage: Very Special Artists, written with George Plimpton, was published by Random House in April 1993.^[5]

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland[link]

In 1993, Smith was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, continuing a legacy of diplomacy begun by her father, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom) during the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As ambassador, she played a pivotal role in the peace process in that region for almost five years before resigning the post. As a demonstration of her ecumenical views, on at least one occasion she received communion in a cathedral of the Church of Ireland, an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion.

Sinn Féin controversy[link]

In 1994, Smith came to the forefront of American foreign policy when she championed the granting of a U.S. visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. Smith has been lauded for her work in the region, specifically for the courage she showed in supporting the visa for Adams which is widely regarded as a key step in the success of the peace process in the years that followed.^[6][7] In her brother Senator Edward Kennedy’s memoir, he described that “Jean was convinced that Adams no longer believed that continuing the armed struggle was the way to achieve the IRA’s objective of a united Ireland,” and that “It took only a couple of hours’ conversation with Jean after we landed to discover what was the most important thing on her mind – the opportunity for a breakthrough in the Northern Ireland stalemate.”^[8]

She was reprimanded by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher for retaliating against two foreign-service officers at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, Ireland, who had objected to her recommendation to the U.S. government to grant a U.S. visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and had sent in a "Dissent Channel" message.^[9] The Foreign Service Journal called the U.S. State Department's report on the matter "scathingly critical".^[10] Her management of the embassy came under criticism by the Boston Herald in December 1996, which obtained internal U.S. State Department memoranda and e-mail, for putting pressure on embassy staff to spend taxpayer money to refurbish her residence in Dublin.^[11][12] Smith was also the subject of an allegation of violations of U.S. conflict-of-interest laws. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release on September 22, 2000, announcing that she had paid US$5,000 in a civil settlement to resolve the allegations.^[13]

She ended her term as ambassador on September 17, 1998.

Philanthropy, awards and later life[link]

Smith has won a number of awards for her work in Ireland and in the disability community. In 1995, she was honored as Irish American of the Year by Irish America magazine and a year later had an uncredited role in the film Michael Collins (1996). She was awarded honorary citizenship by the Government of Ireland in 1998^[14] and in 2007, Smith received the Gold Medal Award from the Éire Society of Boston,^[15] for her peace efforts in Northern Ireland and for her humanitarian work with disabled children. She has also received the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Margaret Mead Humanitarian Award, and the 1997 Terence Cardinal Cooke Humanitarian Award.

In 2009, Smith was honored with the Tipperary Peace Prize along with her brother, the late Senator Edward Kennedy. In February 2011, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom,^[16] the nation’s highest civilian honor, for her work with people with disabilities.

On March 15, 2011, Smith was inducted into Irish America magazine's Irish America Hall of Fame.^[17]

Smith, who holds a number of honorary degrees, serves on the board of directors of both the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the International Rescue Committee, and has also served on the Board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Her husband, Stephen Smith, died of cancer on August 19, 1990. In 1991 their son William, then a student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., was accused of rape in Florida, but was acquitted after a highly-publicized trial.^[18] Her elder sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died on August 11, 2009. Smith did not attend Eunice's funeral on August 14, 2009, choosing to stay with their brother Ted who was ill; he died on August 25, 2009, leaving her as the last surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.^[19] She attended his funeral on August 29, 2009.

See also[link]

• Kennedy family
• U.S. Ambassador to Ireland
• VSA arts

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Jean Kennedy Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• VSA arts official website

v t e United States Ambassadors to Ireland Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Irish Free State 1927–1950 Frederick A. Sterling 1927-34 W. W. McDowell 1934 Alvin M. Owsley 1935-37 John Cudahy 1937-40 David Gray 1940-47 George A. Garrett 1947-50 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 1950–present George A. Garrett 1950-51 Francis P. Matthews 1951-52 William Howard Taft III 1953-57 Scott McLeod 1957-61 Edward G. Stockdale 1961-62 Matthew H. McCloskey 1962-64 Raymond R. Guest 1965-68 Leo J. Sheridan 1968-69 John D.J. Moore 1969-75 Walter J.P. Curley Jr. 1975-77 William V. Shannon 1977-81 William E. McCann 1981 (acting) Peter H. Dailey 1982-84 Robert F. Kane 1984-85 Margaret M. O'Shaughnessy Heckler 1985-89 Richard Anthony Moore 1989-92 William Henry Gerald FitzGerald 1992-93 Jean Kennedy Smith 1993-98 Michael J. Sullivan 1999-01 Richard J. Egan 2001-03 James C. Kenny 2003-06 Thomas C. Foley 2006-09 Dan Rooney 2009-present

Eunice Kennedy Shriver DSG
Zurab Tsereteli with Eunice Kennedy Shriver (right) (unknown date).
Born	Eunice Mary Kennedy (1921-07-10)July 10, 1921 Brookline, Massachusetts, US
Died	August 11, 2009(2009-08-11) (aged 88) Hyannis, Massachusetts, US
Cause of death	Stroke[1]
Resting place	St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church parish cemetery Centerville, Massachusetts, United States[1]
Nationality	American
Education	Manhattanville College
Alma mater	Stanford University
Political party	Democratic
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse	Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. (1953–2009, her death)
Children	Robert Sargent Shriver III Maria Owings Shriver Timothy Perry Shriver Mark Kennedy Shriver Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver
Parents	Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald)
Relatives	see Kennedy family
Website
eunicekennedyshriver.org

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, DSG (July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009)^[2] a member of the Kennedy family, sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, was the founder in 1962 of Camp Shriver,^{[clarification needed]} and in 1968, the Special Olympics. Her husband, Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., was United States Ambassador to France and the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the 1972 U.S. presidential election. Their daughter, Maria Shriver, was married to actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Early life[link]

Born Eunice Mary Kennedy in Brookline, Massachusetts, she was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald.

She was educated at the Manhattanville College on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (the school later moved to Purchase, New York). After graduating from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology in 1943,^[3] she worked for the Special War Problems Division of the U.S. State Department. She eventually moved to the U.S. Justice Department as executive secretary for a project dealing with juvenile delinquency. She served as a social worker at the Federal Industrial Institution for Women for one year before moving to Chicago in 1951 to work with the House of the Good Shepherd women's shelter and the Chicago Juvenile Court.^[4]

Political career[link]

Shriver actively campaigned for her elder brother, John, during his successful 1960 U.S. presidential election.

In 1968, she helped Anne McGlone Burke nationalize the Special Olympics movement and is the only woman to have her portrait appear, during her lifetime, on a U.S. coin – the 1995 commemorative Special Olympics silver dollar.

Although Shriver was a Democrat, she was a vocal supporter of the pro-life movement. In 1990, Shriver wrote a letter to The New York Times denouncing the misuse of a quotation by President Kennedy used out of context by a pro-choice group.^[5] During Bill Clinton's 1992 Democratic U.S. presidential campaign, she was one of several prominent Democrats – including Governor Robert P. Casey of Pennsylvania, and Bishop Austin Vaughan of New York – who signed a letter to The New York Times protesting the Democratic Party's pro-choice plank in its platform. Shriver was a supporter of several pro-life organizations: Feminists for Life of America,^[6] the Susan B. Anthony List,^[7] and Democrats for Life of America.

A life-long Democrat, she supported her Republican son-in-law Schwarzenegger's successful 2003 Governor of California election.

On January 28, 2008, Shriver was present at American University in Washington, D.C., when her brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, announced his endorsement of Barack Obama's 2008 Democratic U.S. presidential campaign.^{[8][dead link]}

Charity work and awards[link]

In 2008, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was renamed in honor of Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

A longtime advocate for children's health and disability issues, Shriver was a key founder of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a part of the National Institutes of Health, in 1962, and has also helped to establish numerous other health-care facilities and support networks throughout the country.

In 1982, Shriver founded the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Community of Caring at University of Utah, Salt Lake City. The Community is a "grades K-12, whole school, comprehensive character education program with a focus on disabilities... adopted by almost 1,200 schools nationwide and in Canada."^[9]

She was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the (U.S.) Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, because of her work on behalf of those with mental retardation.^[10]

In 1990 Shriver was awarded the Eagle Award from the United States Sports Academy. The Eagle Award is the Academy's highest international honor and was awarded to Shriver for her significant contributions to international sport.^[11]

For her work in nationalizing the Special Olympics, Shriver received the Civitan International World Citizenship Award.^[12] Her advocacy on this issue has also earned her other awards and recognitions, including honorary degrees from numerous universities.^[13][14] She is the second American and only woman to appears on a US coin while still living. Her portrait is on the obverse of the 1995 commemorative silver dollar honoring the Special Olympics. On the reverse is the quotation, "As we hope for the best in them, hope is reborn in us."

Shriver received the 2002 Theodore Roosevelt Award (the Teddy),^[15] an annual award given by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to a graduate from an NCAA member institution who earned a varsity letter in college for participation in intercollegiate athletics, and who ultimately became a distinguished citizen of national reputation based on outstanding life accomplishment.

In addition to the Teddy recognition, she was selected in 2006 as part of the NCAA Centennial celebration as one of the 100 most-influential individuals in its first century; she was listed ninth.^[15]

In 2006 she received a papal knighthood from Pope Benedict XVI being made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (DSG). Her mother had been created a papal countess in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, the U.S. Congress changed the NICHD’s name to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In December 2008, Sports Illustrated named her the first recipient of Sportsman of the Year Legacy Award.^[16]

On May 9, 2009, the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, D.C., unveiled an historic portrait of her, the first portrait the NPG has ever commissioned of an individual who had not served as a U.S. President or First Lady. The portrait depicts her with four Special Olympics athletes (including Loretta Claiborne) and one Best Buddies participant. It was painted by David Lenz, the winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2006. As part of the Portrait Competition prize, the NPG commissioned a work from the winning artist to depict a living subject for the collection. Lenz, whose son, Sam, has Down syndrome and is an enthusiastic Special Olympics athlete, was inspired by Shriver’s dedication to working with people with intellectual disabilities.

Shriver became involved with Dorothy Hamill's special skating program in the Special Olympics after Hamill's Olympics Games ice-skating win. In September 2010, the State University of New York at Brockport, home of the 1979 Special Olympics, renamed their football stadium after Shriver.^[17]

Personal life[link]

On May 23, 1953, she married Sargent Shriver in a Roman Catholic ceremony at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, New York.^[18] Her husband served as the U.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970 and was the 1972 Democratic U.S. Vice Presidential candidate (with George McGovern as the candidate for U.S. President).^[18] They had five children:

• Robert Sargent Shriver III (born April 28, 1954)
• Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955)
• Timothy Perry Shriver (born August 29, 1959)
• Mark Kennedy Shriver (born February 17, 1964)
• Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20, 1965)

With her husband she had nineteen grandchildren, the second-most of any of the children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy. (Her brother U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy had eleven children who have produced thirty-two grandchildren.)^{[dated info]}

As executive vice president of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation in the 1950s, she shifted the organization's focus from Catholic charities to research on the causes of people with intellectual disabilities and humane ways to treat it.^[19] This interest eventually culminated in, among other things, the Special Olympics movement.

Upon the death of her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, on January 7, 2005, Shriver became the eldest of the four then-surviving children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Her sister, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, died on September 17, 2006, and her brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, on August 25, 2009, leaving her sister, former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, as her only surviving sibling.^[20]

Later years and death[link]

Shriver, who was believed to have suffered from Addison's disease,^[21] suffered a stroke and a broken hip in 2005, and on November 18, 2007, she was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she spent several weeks.^[22][23]

On August 9, 2009, she was admitted to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, with an undisclosed ailment.^[24]

On August 10, her relatives were called to the hospital.^[25] Early the following morning, Shriver died at the hospital; she was 88 years old.^[2][26] No other Kennedy, with the exception of her mother, Rose, has, to date, lived longer.

Shriver's family issued a statement upon her death, reading in part

"Inspired by her love of God, her devotion to her family, and her relentless belief in the dignity and worth of every human life, she worked without ceasing—searching, pushing, demanding, hoping for change. She was a living prayer, a living advocate, a living center of power. She set out to change the world and to change us, and she did that and more. She founded the movement that became Special Olympics, the largest movement for acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities in the history of the world. Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, and they in turn are her living legacy."^[27]

President Barack Obama remarked after Shriver's death that she was "an extraordinary woman who, as much as anyone, taught our nation—and our world—that no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit."^[28]

Funeral and burial[link]

On August 14, 2009, an invitation-only Requiem Mass was celebrated for Shriver at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in Hyannis. Following the Requiem Mass, she was buried at the St. Francis Xavier parish cemetery in nearby Centerville.^[1] Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter of condolence to her family.^[29] Because he had terminal brain cancer, her brother Ted was unable to attend the funeral,^[30] and their sister, Jean Smith (now the sole surviving child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy), stayed with him. Ted died two weeks later.^[20][30]

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Kennedy family
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• Special Olympics

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eunice Kennedy Shriver

• eunicekennedyshriver.org, Shriver's official website
• "Statement from The Shriver Family", (August 11, 2009) on Shriver's official website
• Shriver, Maria (August 14, 2009). Transcript. "Maria Shriver's Eulogy of Her Mother", The Boston Globe. Accessed August 31, 2009.
• "Statement from the President on the Passing Of Eunice Kennedy Shriver", (August 11, 2009) on the White House's website
• Staff writer (undated). "Eunice Kennedy Shriver", obituary by The Associated Press (at The Boston Globe)
• Staff writer (August 11, 2009). "Eunice Kennedy Shriver", obituary at The Daily Telegraph
• "Special Olympians, Family Celebrate Eunice Kennedy Shriver", article on funeral and burial by The Associated Press (at WJAR television's website turnto10.com)
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver at the Internet Movie Database
• specialolympics.org, Special Olympics's official website
• communityofcaring.org, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Community of Caring's official website
• Shapiro, Joseph, Eunice Kennedy Shriver's Olympic Legacy, (April 5, 2007) Morning Edition on National Public Radio's website (includes podcast as well as text)
• Coin of the Month, U.S. Mint "Coin of the Month" page (geared for children) on the 1995 Special Olympics Commemorative Silver Dollar
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver at Find a Grave