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Eunice Kennedy ShriverAmerican activist, representative of the Kennedy clan
Date of Birth: 10.07.1921
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was an American activist, a representative of the Kennedy clan, and the organizer and founder of the first international Special Olympics for people with intellectual disabilities. Born in Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Eunice was the fifth child in a large family. After receiving her education, she became interested in the social issues faced by people with various intellectual disabilities and dedicated her future work to finding solutions for them.
Marriage and Family
On May 23, 1953, she married Sargent Shriver, a prominent member of the Democratic Party, a vice presidential candidate for the party, and a senator from Massachusetts since 1973. The couple had five children together. In 1960, Eunice Kennedy actively assisted her older brother, John F. Kennedy, in organizing and conducting a successful presidential campaign.
Special Olympics
In June 1963, Eunice opened a summer day camp for children and adults with intellectual disabilities at her home in Maryland. The camp aimed to explore their abilities in various sports and physical activities. Her work in this field eventually led to the organization of the first international Special Olympics, held in July 1968 at Soldier Field in Chicago. In December of the same year, the Special Olympics became a charitable organization. In 1988, at the XV Winter Olympics in Calgary, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the President of the International Olympic Committee, signed an agreement with Eunice Kennedy, granting the Special Olympics the right to use the word "Olympic" in its name. Since then, the Special Olympics have had Olympic status and continue to be held to this day.
Legacy
Eunice's main contribution was proving that regular physical activity and participation in sports competitions help intellectually disabled individuals acquire work skills, learn to act purposefully and organized, and create opportunities for gradual adaptation to real-life conditions and integration into society. For her active philanthropic work, President Ronald Reagan awarded Eunice Kennedy with the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1984.
Later Life and Death
In her final years, despite her advanced age and serious illness (she suffered from Addison's disease), Eunice continued to participate in the social life of the country. At the age of 88, shortly before her death, she was taken to a clinic in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in critical condition, where she passed away from Addison's disease on August 11, 2009.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the fifth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Her three brothers were also U.S. politicians: Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), a U.S. Senator from New York from 1965 until his death; John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), the 35th President of the United States from 1960 until his assassination; and Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009), a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1962.
Eunice had five children with her husband, Robert Sargent Shriver: Robert Sargent Shriver III (born in 1955), Maria Owings Shriver (born in 1955), Timothy Perry Shriver (born in 1957), Mark Kennedy Shriver (born in 1964), and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born in 1965). She had a total of five children and 13 grandchildren. According to Jacqueline Kennedy's recollections, Eunice's father, Joseph Kennedy, said about his daughter: "Competition drives us. This also applied to women. In fact, Eunice was more energetic than Jack and Bobby. If she were a man, she would have become president."
