Passing: Eunice Kennedy Shriver

From The Boston Globe:

By Bryan Marquard
Globe Staff / August 11, 2009

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who planted the seeds for the Special Olympics when she launched Camp Shriver on the lawn of her Maryland home, and then with force of will and the clout of her family name spread her vision of lifting the developmentally disabled "into the sunlight of useful living," died on August 11.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2009/08/11/eunice_kennedy_shriver_88_member_of_kennedy_clan_founder_of_special_olympics/

Editorial: Eunice Shriver: Transformative, on her own terms - http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/08/12/eunice_shriver_transformative_on_her_own_terms/


CENTERVILLE - Before the doors opened for Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s wake, the line of mourners curled around the church entrance and stretched clear across the parking lot. Midway down, a group of adults from Cape Abilities, a service organization for people with disabilities, clutched bunches of flowers. One of them, Mike Rhodes, held a card they had all signed.

“You taught us to stand tall,” said Rhodes, 25, reading the inscription. “She did. She [stood] tall for all of us and loved us.’’

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/14/throngs_mourn_shriver_a_champion_of_the_disabled/


From The Washington Post:

Shriver, a pencil-thin woman with a big, toothy smile, was well known for her willingness to get close to those she was trying to help -- joining children in their games, listening to and encouraging them, talking to their parents.

"I think that really the only way you change people's attitudes or behavior is to work with them," she told an interviewer. "Not write papers or serve on committees. Who's going to work with the child to change him -- with the juvenile delinquent and the retarded? Who's going to teach them to swim? To catch a ball? You have to work with the person. It's quite simple, actually."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081100689.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081100917.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081101878.html?hpid=opinionsbox1



New York Times:

“When the full judgment of the Kennedy legacy is made — including J.F.K.’s Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress, Robert Kennedy’s passion for civil rights and Ted Kennedy’s efforts on health care, workplace reform and refugees — the changes wrought by Eunice Shriver may well be seen as the most consequential,” U.S. News & World Report said in its cover story of Nov. 15, 1993.

Edward Kennedy said in an interview in October 2007: “You talk about an agent of change — she is it. If the test is what you’re doing that’s been helpful for humanity, you’d be hard pressed to find another member of the family who’s done more.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12shriver.html?ref=obituaries