American social activist from a noted family, the daughter of Rose and Joseph Kennedy. She married Robert Shriver, Jr. in 1953 and had five kids. Her daughter Maria became a TV anchor and married Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Philanthropically active, she initiated the original idea of the Peace Corps. though never credited for it, founded the Special Olympics for Retarded and Handicapped children and also worked with the welfare of women prisoners in the penal system.
A strong character and a workaholic, she had Addison’s Disease, the same as her brother John F. Kennedy. On 13 October 2000, she had a successful five-hour surgery to remove a benign pancreatic tumor, in Baltimore. On 23 October 2000 she was readmitted to the hospital with a severe postoperative infection. The next morning, the doctors again performed surgery in an effort to stem the infection. She was in critical but stable condition.
Her sister Rosemary Kennedy died at age 86 on 7 January 2005. Born mildly retarded, Rosemary underwent a lobotomy at age 23 and had been institutionalized nearly her entire life. Rosemary was the inspiration for Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s drive to establish the Special Olympics in 1968.
The cofounder of the Special Olympics suffered a minor stroke on 29 October 2005 and was hospitalized at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was also treated for a stress fracture of the hip.
She was hospitalized in early August and died a few days later on 11 August 2009 at 2:00 AM (according to family quoted in news reports) in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She was 88.
Link to Wikipedia biography