Eunice Kennedy Shriver dead at 88 (Roundup)

Aug 11, 2009, 11:56 GMT

(FILE) California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger shakes hands with his Eunice Shriver (L), his mother-in-law during a rally in Huntington Beach, Calif., 06 October 2003. Eunice Shriver, the mother of Maria Shriver, is the sister of the assassinated president John F Kennedy and Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver were at the bedside of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, on 07 August at a hospital in Massachusetts, a newspaper reported 07 August. She was hospitalized and later died on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, near the Kennedy family compound. EPA/FRANCIS SPECKER

   Washington - Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a younger sister of late US President John F. Kennedy known for her work on behalf of people with mental disabilities, died Tuesday morning, US media reports said, citing the Kennedy family. She was 88.

   The reports said Shriver died around 2 am (0600 GMT) in a hospital in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she had been in intensive care for the past week.

   The founder of the Special Olympics to allow people with mental disabilities to compete in sports - her work was in part inspired by the struggles of her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary.

Eunice Shriver was from one of America's most prominent political families.

   She was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr and Rose Kennedy, with her siblings including the late President Kennedy and late Senator Robert Kennedy - both were assassinated in the 1960s - as well as current Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

   She was also the mother-in-law of current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Shriver was born July 10, 1921, in Brookline, Massachusetts. She earned a degree in sociology from Stanford University and held multiple government positions, including a position helping World War II veterans readjust to civilian life and another as a social worker at a women's prison in West Virginia, reported CNN.

   She is survived by her husband R Sargent Shriver and their five children. A statement by the Special Olympics said that her husband, children and their spouses, as well as her 19 grandchildren were with her when she died.

   'We are tremendously grateful for the extreme outpouring of support and prayer from the public as we honour our beloved founder,' Special Olympics President and Chief Operation Officer Brady Lum said Tuesday in a statement.

   'Today we celebrate the life of a woman who had the vision to create our movement. It is an enormous loss, but I know we can rest assured that her legacy will live on through her family, friends, and the millions of people around the world who she touched and transformed,' he added.'

   Shriver, whose husband organized the US Peace Corps under his brother-in-law's administration, started a special camp at her home in suburban Maryland outside the nation's capital in 1962. The intention was to to 'explore' the capabilities of 'adults with intellectual disabilities' for sports and physical activities, according to the Special Olympics' website.

   In 1968, just weeks after the assassination of another brother, Robert, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Shriver launched the first International Special Olympics Summer Games.

   Those attracted 1,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities from 26 US states and Canada to compete in track and field and swimming.

   By 2008, the Special Olympics celebrated its 40th anniversary, drawing nearly 3 million athletes from more than 180 countries to the event that followed the regular Olympic Games in Beijing.

   Shriver's influence on her brother, the former president, is credited with the push in 1963 to pass the first law in US history to protect and support the rights of the mentally disabled.

Shriver's daughter, Maria, was a well-known television reporter who married the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Eunice Shriver campaigned for her son-in-law in the gubernatorial race.

   Although Rosemary Kennedy's history of mental illness is unclear, her father, Joseph Kennedy, sent her for the relatively new and since-discontinued procedure of a prefrontal lobotomy when she was only 23, in 1941. The cutting away of part of her brain reduced her to severe retardation.

   Rosemary was kept in an institution and out of the public eye until her situation became public in 1960, as her brother John was running for president. She died in 2005 at age 86.