(OSV Information) — Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, a human rights activist and mom of 11, died Oct. 10, her household stated. She was 96.

Kennedy had been hospitalized after struggling a stroke on Oct. 3, her household stated.

Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., her grandson, stated in an announcement posted on X, “It’s with our hearts full of affection that we announce the passing of our wonderful grandmother, Ethel Kennedy.”

“She died this morning from issues associated to a stroke suffered final week,” Joe Kennedy stated. “Together with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mom leaves behind 9 youngsters, 34 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren, together with quite a few nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly.”

Ethel Kennedy, he stated, “was a religious Catholic and a each day communicant, and we’re comforted in figuring out she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her youngsters David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie.”

“Please maintain her in your hearts and prayers,” he added.

In an announcement, President Joe Biden referred to as Ethel Kennedy “an American icon — a matriarch of optimism and ethical braveness, an emblem of resilience and repair. Dedicated to household and nation, she had a backbone of metal and a coronary heart of gold that impressed hundreds of thousands of Individuals, together with me and Jill.”

Biden praised her for “turning ache into goal” after her husband’s assassination and “persevering with his march towards civil rights and social justice, an finish to poverty at house, and securing peace overseas — all whereas elevating their 11 youngsters.”

“4 years later, after I misplaced my very own spouse and toddler daughter, Ethel was all the time there for me and my sons,” he stated. “She helped us discover power and perseverance. She taught us how one can channel grief into the service of a better good.”

Based on her biography from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Ethel Skakel Kennedy was born on April 11, 1928, in Chicago to George Skakel, a Protestant, and his devoutly Catholic spouse, Ann Brannack Skakel. The household later moved to Connecticut, as her father turned a profitable coal magnate. Ethel and Robert Kennedy had been married on June 17, 1950, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenwich.

The matriarch of probably the most outstanding U.S. political households not solely misplaced her husband to an murderer’s bullet in 1968, but additionally her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

When her husband was assassinated whereas he sought the Democratic nomination for president, Ethel Kennedy was pregnant with their youngest youngster, born six months after his dying.

She later based the Robert F. Kennedy Heart for Justice and Human Rights, which seeks to advertise what it calls on its web site “his unfinished work.”

In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the best civilian honor given by the U.S. authorities, for her work on a number of causes, together with human rights, environmental safety and social justice.

Kennedy’s dying got here simply weeks after her third youngster, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ended his failed bid for president marketing campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump, a transfer criticized by his household.