Eunice Kennedy Shriver Dies At Age 88

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STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Eunice Kennedy Shriver spent her final days on Cape Cod, in the state that's been connected with her family for decades. Shriver has died at the age of 88. She was the daughter of a millionaire, the sister of a president and the mother-in-law of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And Eunice Kennedy Shriver has had an eventful life of her own. Linda Wertheimer, who's been sitting in this week, covered her over the years, knew her over the years. And, Linda, I want to call her half of a power couple, but it was a special kind of power couple.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:

Well, they were both very much involved, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her husband, Sargent Shriver, in the campaigns of all the Kennedy brothers. The efforts of John Kennedy's successful presidential campaign and then Sargent Shriver served with John Kennedy. He was ambassador to France. Eunice Shriver campaigned in all of the - in all of her brothers' efforts and very much believed in everything that they did. But she, as you say, she had her own life.

INSKEEP: Which included founding the Special Olympics?

WERTHEIMER: That's right. I think that it's not the only organization she created, but perhaps the biggest and best known. That was in 1968. The first Special Olympics was in Chicago. And she had - she brought to that her lifelong feeling that mental retardation was a disability that was not properly dealt with. That there were too many people who were sort of kept secret in their own families.

And, of course, one cannot - one has to sort of think about Rosemary Kennedy, who was her sister, who had - who was mentally retarded, lived to a great age, but had to be cared for. And Eunice Kennedy felt very strongly that people with mental disabilities should come out of any kind of seclusion, should have school, should have sports, should have all of the things that other children have. And she worked very hard with Special Olympics to see that that happened.

INSKEEP: And this is a woman who had to live her life in everything but seclusion and try to raise a family in the spotlight of being a member of the Kennedy family.

WERTHEIMER: But, you know, her children, the Shriver children, I think, are the most kind of regular guy children, despite their own personal great accomplishments, of all of the Kennedy. Because they, I think, benefited very much from having both their parents all their lives. And their parents had this very, very strong ethic that the children all talk about about - public service. That it's important that everybody give back to the community sort of in proportion to the things that they have been given.

INSKEEP: And those children include Maria Shriver, the NBC newscaster who is now the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

WERTHEIMER: That's right. And Mark Shriver, who heads the Save the Children activities in the United States. Bobby Shriver is now the head of Special Olympics. Anthony Shriver works for Best Buddies, which is a sort of mentoring program that Eunice Shriver created for people with disabilities.

They have been very, very much involved in public life and in making real, I think, Eunice Kennedy's very great interest in trying to take care of people with disability.

INSKEEP: Very, very briefly, what was it like when Eunice Kennedy Shriver walked into a room, worked a room?

WERTHEIMER: She sort of looked amazingly like her brother Jack, the president. Big, tall woman with very sharp features and a very strong Boston accent and a quick, you know, quick wit. But she sort of had this loud, braying voice. And whenever she came into the room everybody turned around.

INSKEEP: Mmm. Well, we'll leave you with that memory of Eunice Kennedy Shriver who has died at the age of 88. She'd suffered a series of strokes in recent years.

This is NPR News.

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