page_title: Ethel Kennedy
section_title: Marriage and family
hierarchical_section_title: Ethel Kennedy / Marriage and family
caption_attribution_description: Ethel Kennedy
context_page_description: Ethel Kennedy is an American human rights advocate. Kennedy is the widow of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy as well as the sixth child of George Skakel and Ann Brannack. She married Robert F. Kennedy in 1950, and the couple had 11 children together.
  Shortly after her husband's 1968 assassination, Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The organization is a nonprofit charity working to fulfill Robert F. Kennedy's dream of a just and peaceful world. In 2014, Ethel Kennedy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
context_section_description: Robert Kennedy and Ethel Skakel became engaged in February 1950 and were married on June 17, 1950, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.
  During the 1950s, Robert F. Kennedy worked for the federal government in investigatory roles for the United States Senate as a counsel. The Kennedys purchased Hickory Hill, an estate in McLean, Virginia, from Robert's brother John and his wife, Jackie. Robert and Ethel Kennedy held many gatherings at their home and were known for their impressive and eclectic guest lists.
  In 1962, President Kennedy assigned Ethel and Robert to tour fourteen countries within a 28-day goodwill trip. Though the trip was said to be informal, the host countries viewed her and Robert as stand-ins for the President and First Lady.
  On November 22, 1963, Ethel learned of President Kennedy's assassination from her husband. She had answered the phone, identified the caller as J. Edgar Hoover and handed the phone over to Robert, who then informed her of the shooting. The FBI Director had never called the Attorney General's home before. Ethel was reportedly devastated by the assassination and worried for President Kennedy's children.
  Ethel urged her husband to enter the Democratic primary for the 1968 presidential election. Biographer Evan Thomas portrayed her as RFK's "most consistent advocate of a race for the White House."
caption: Ethel Kennedy in 1968
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