Biden, Clinton and Obama remember Ethel Kennedy at memorial service

Washington — Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and the mother of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was remembered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, with a eulogy delivered by President Biden. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton also spoke at the service, which was held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

The human rights advocate, mother and grandmother died in her sleep earlier this month after a stroke. She was 96.  

Mr. Biden said Kennedy played an “essential role in my life,” offering glimpses of their personal relationship. When his first wife and daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972, “she was there,” the president said. And when Mr. Biden was elected president in 2020, he received a letter from her that said it gave her great “comfort” to know the country was in his hands. And she always sent a Valentine’s Day card.

“I’m not bidin’ my time waiting for you, valentine,” one such card from her said, Mr. Biden recalled.

The president said Kennedy was full of integrity, empathy, joy and light. And she and Ted Kennedy encouraged him when he was fed up with Congress and wanted to leave the Senate, he said. 

“She got me through a time I didn’t want to stick around,” the president said. 

Mr. Biden said Kennedy picked up her late husband’s causes and stamped her own imprint on them. 

“We’re a better nation and a better world because of Ethel Kennedy,” he said. 

Obama called Kennedy a “big dose in a small package,” and a “spitfire from a young age.” She was passionate about everything, Obama said, from juvenile justice reform to civil rights. 

“As serious as Ethel was about righting wrongs, she never seemed to take herself too seriously,” Obama said. 

Clinton called her an “amazing fireball with continuous energy.” 

“I thought your mother was the cat’s meow,” Clinton told her assembled family.

Kennedy had not only political stars at her memorial service, but musical ones as well. Stevie Wonder and Kenny Chesney performed in her honor. 

The matriarch of the storied Kennedy family is survived by nine children, 34 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Her grandson, Joe Kennedy III, said she was a “strong woman who has led a remarkably fulfilling life.” 

Members of the Kennedy family gathered Monday for her funeral in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Mr. Biden has praised Kennedy for her resilience and determination. 

“Ethel Kennedy was an American icon — a matriarch of optimism and moral courage, an emblem of resilience and service,” Mr. Biden said in a statement after her death. “Devoted to family and country, she had a spine of steel and a heart of gold that inspired millions of Americans, including me and Jill. We were blessed to call her a dear friend.”

Ethel Kennedy, who had 11 children, raised them after her husband was assassinated in 1968 during his presidential campaign. Her son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was running for president in 2024 as an independent, but he suspended his campaign in August and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

Born on April 11, 1928, Kennedy suffered a number of tragedies in her long life. In 1955, both of her parents died when their private plane crashed. Her son, David Kennedy, died of a drug overdose at 28. Another son, Michael Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident at 39. And both her husband and her brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, were assassinated. 

She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation in October 1968, shortly after her husband’s assassination.