Ethel Skakel Kennedy
Ethel Skakel Kennedy (born
April 11,
1928 in
Chicago, Illinois) is a member of the
Kennedy family by her marriage to
Robert F. Kennedy. Her parents were Anne Brannack Skakel, who was Catholic, and George Skakel, who was Protestant. She was raised as a Catholic. Her father was the founder of the very successful
Great Lakes Carbon Corporation.
Ethel attended
Greenwich Academy, and
The Convent of the Sacred Heart in the Bronx. In September 1945, Ethel began her education at
Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, then located in
Manhattan. It was here where she met
Jean Kennedy (sister of Robert F. Kennedy); they eventually became friends and roommates.
She met Robert F. Kennedy (Bobby) during a skiing trip to
Mont-Tremblant, Quebec,
Canada during the winter of 1945. He was dating Ethel's sister, Patricia Skakel. Eventually that relationship ended and Ethel and Bobby started seeing each other. Ethel campaigned for
John F. Kennedy in 1946, and wrote her college thesis on his book
Why England Slept. Bobby and Ethel became engaged in February 1950 and married on June 17, 1950. Ethel and Bobby moved to
Charlottesville, Va., where they lived while Bobby finished his last year at the
University of Virginia Law School. Their first child, Kathleen, was born on July 4, 1951.
On October 4, 1955, Ethel's parents died in a plane crash when their plane ran out of fuel. Her brother George also died in a plane crash in 1966, his widow, Pat, died shortly thereafter, leaving several children.
She eventually had 11 children with Bobby; she was expecting the 11th when her husband was assassinated in
1968. Since the assassination, she has been active in preserving her husband's memory and every honor for him has been an honor for her as well.
Mrs Kennedy is known for her friendly, outgoing, competative, and sometimes manic personality, fierce loyalty to family and faith, but also a somtimes cutting and mean side. This dark side is directed at employees and merchants she does business with, and and sometimes at her own children. Her son, Joe, in particular, reportedly has bore the brunt of his mother's high expectations. She is not known to forgive people like journalist
Roger Mudd who she feels has not be sufficiently loyal to her family.
Ethel and Bobby's children were, in chronological order:
Kathleen (b. 1951),
Joseph (b. 1952),
Robert Jr. (b. 1954),
David (1955-1984),
Courtney (b. 1956),
Michael (1958-1997),
Kerry (b. 1959),
Christopher (b. 1963),
Matthew (b. 1965),
Douglas (b. 1967) and
Rory (b. 1968).
Ethel Skakel Kennedy is the aunt of
Michael Skakel.
