‘Get out there and do something’: Kerry Kennedy on her mother Ethel, ‘a woman of action’ …

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‘Get out there and do something’: Kerry Kennedy on her mother Ethel, ‘a woman of action’

In "Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy," Kennedy chronicles her mother's strength and resilience

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Her husband was murdered in front of her when she was pregnant with her 11th child, yet somehow Ethel Kennedy survived and thrived

Kerry Kennedy has a very simple answer when asked why she decided to write a book about her mother, Ethel Kennedy. “Well, I loved her,” says the author and activist, “and I think there’s an extraordinary story to tell.”

Kennedy’s mother, born Ethel Skakel in 1928, came from a family of modest means — her father only had a sixth-grade education — that became extremely wealthy during her early childhood. When the Skakels moved to Greenwich, Conn., Kennedy says, “it was like the Beverly Hillbillies. They never fit in. And they were comfortable with that.”

In “Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy” (HarperOne), Kennedy chronicles her mother’s long life from that boisterous, if privileged, childhood through her marriage to Robert F. Kennedy, to her years in the spotlight as a political wife, to the era after her husband’s assassination in 1968, which thrust Ethel into a new role as protector of the family legacy and founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights. When she died in 2024, Presidents Biden, Obama, and Clinton delivered eulogies.

An Intimate Look at Ethel and Jackie Kennedy’s Special Bond

After Daddy started working on Capitol Hill, my parents moved the family into a cozy house on S Street in Georgetown. Life there was unpretentious, hectic, and fun. “S Street was the smallest house you’ve ever seen in your whole life, teeny tiny,” Mum recalled, probably exaggerating a teeny tiny bit. “But we were happy there.” She made their home a cheerful refuge from Daddy’s increasingly stressful job as assistant counsel for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Uncle Jack [John F. Kennedy, a U.S. senator at the time] lived with them on weekdays and flew back to Massachusetts to campaign and work with constituents on weekends.

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