US Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton were among the dignitaries who attended Ethel Kennedy’s funeral on Wednesday. She died at the age of 96 last week.
The human rights campaigner was the widow of former US Senator Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, with whom she had 11 children and an 18-year marriage before his killing in 1968.
“We saw how she picked up Bobby’s cause and stamped her own mark on the country,” said Biden during his eulogy for the matriarch and pillar of the powerful Kennedy family.
Obama and Clinton both spoke during the service, which was held at St Matthews Cathedral in Washington, the same venue as the 1963 funeral for Robert Kennedy’s older brother, President John F. Kennedy.
Celebrities in attendance on Wednesday included Stevie Wonder and Sting.
Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also attended the dinner, marking her first encounter with Biden since she reportedly advocated for him to withdraw from the US presidential election three months ago.
Ethel established the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Organization following her husband’s death.
Among her 11 children is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who campaigned for president as an independent in 2024 before dropping out and supporting Republican Donald Trump, much to the dismay of his notoriously Democratic family.
Ethel, like other members of the Kennedy family, inspired many Americans with her resilience in the face of tragedy.
In addition to her husband’s murder on June 6, 1968, and the death of her brother-in-law in 1963, Ethel lost both of her parents in a plane disaster, and two of her sons died unexpectedly, one from an overdose and the other in a skiing accident.