Happy 77th Birthday, Ethel Skakel Kennedy

[paineinthearse]

From wikipedia

Ethel Skakel Kennedy (born April 11, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois) is a member of the Kennedy political 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, located in Purchase, New York. 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 got together. 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.

Ethel and Bobby's children were, in chronological order: Kathleen (b. 1951), Joseph (b. 1952), Robert (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).

[paineinthearse]

1. 2 hours left to wish this classy lady a happy birthday.

I am disappointed that this post has been here 14 hours and garnered zero birthday wishes. Ethel deserves better.

[NYFlip]

2. I join you in wishing her a very Happy Birthday

She's a wonderful strong woman

[paineinthearse]

3. NYFlip

Welcome to DU :hi:

[powergirl]

4. I was reading RFK quotes today for inspiration

What a brilliant mind to be taken from us. The sadness I feel cannot compare to the sorrow in Mrs. Kennedy's heart. God bless that great lady.

A favorite RFK quotation given by him during a speech at a university in South Africa - when apartheid was in full swing -

"We must recognize the full human equality of all our people - before God, before the law, and in the councils of government. We must do this not because it is economically advantageous - although it is: not because the laws of God and man command it - although they do command it; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do."

Amen