President Joe Biden capped a somber yet celebratory funeral for Ethel Kennedy on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., echoing the thoughtful remarks from dozens of other mourners who were touched by her decades of love and work.
Kennedy died on Oct. 10, two days after she suffered a stroke in her sleep, according to her family. She was 96 years old.
Her service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle included performances from Sting, Kenny Chesney and Stevie Wonder, who all paid tribute to her years of service.
Biden held back tears as he reflected on how Kennedy personally touched him since he entered public office and expressed gratitude for that love.
“We’re a better nation and a better world because of Ethel Kennedy,” he said.
Biden talked about how Kennedy was there for him after his first wife Neilia and daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash in 1972, shortly before he was sworn into the Senate.
“Along with Teddy [Kennedy], she got me through a time I didn’t want to stick around, I want no part of being in the Congress and the Senate. I mean, I spoke to my governor, because we elected a Democratic governor, to find a replacement for me, but Teddy and Ethel Kennedy were there. ‘No, none of it,'” the president said.
“The fact is, like she did for the country, she helped my family find a way [with] principle and purpose,” he said.
Biden also talked about how Ethel Kennedy and her family showed their support when his son Beau Biden passed away in 2015. He returned the gesture to the Kennedys on Wednesday.
“To the Kennedy family, the Biden family is here for you, as you’ve always been for us,” he said.
Several of Ethel Kennedy’s children she shared with Robert F. Kennedy, their grandchildren and other relatives eulogized her throughout the Mass. Each talked about their memories of her, as well as her work fighting for civil rights and other social issues.
“Her mission was to keep daddy’s legacy alive, but in fulfilling that mission, she now leaves us a legacy that is truly hers,” daughter Kerry Kennedy said.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also eulogized Ethel, each recalling personal anecdotes.
Obama remembered how Ethel Kennedy gave him a huge blessing following his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and remarked how he, too, was marveled by her decades of service.
“Her joy, her zest for life, her love for people helped feed in her a righteous anger toward the many injustices in our world,” Obama said.
Clinton joked that Ethel Kennedy would “flirt with me in the most innocent ways.”
“I thought your mother was the cat’s meow,” he said, which was met with laughter.
Clinton added that Ethel Kennedy would always want to welcome everyone and make them feel like they were family.
“She really wanted to be your mother, grandmother, mother-in-law. She was an amazing fireball of continuous energy. It was wonderful to be around her,” he said.
Born Ethel Skakel in Chicago in 1928 and raised in New England, she would come into the Kennedy family’s life when she attended Manhattanville College and met Jean Kennedy, who introduced her to her brother Bobby.
The couple would marry in 1950 and their daughter, Kathleen — the first of their 11 children — was born a year later.
The family moved to D.C. where Bobby Kennedy was working as a Justice Department attorney. In 1960, the spotlight on the family grew after John F. Kennedy was elected president and Bobby Kennedy was named attorney general.
After JFK’s assassination, Bobby Kennedy stayed politically active and campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
Robert Kennedy said of his wife during his victory speech in the Indiana primary that she “has made such a major difference in this campaign and a major difference for me.”
However, two months later, on June 5, 1968, an assassin’s bullet ended Robert Kennedy’s life as he delivered a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California primary. Ethel Kennedy, who witnessed her husband’s murder, was left a widow at the age of 40 with 10 children and was pregnant with the couple’s 11th. She would never again marry.
Following her husband’s death, Ethel Kennedy became involved in social causes, including gun control, and started the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center to carry on her husband’s work for justice and human rights.
In 2014, Obama presented Ethel Kennedy with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“She’s an emblem of enduring faith and enduring hope even in the face of unimaginable loss and unimaginable grief,” Obama said during the medal ceremony.
