January 11, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Shriver: Presidents - Kennedy: Obituaries: Special Olympics: Seattle Times: In 1968, having witnessed her sister's struggles and triumphs, Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics. It came out of a love that only a sister can hold
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January 11, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Shriver: Presidents - Kennedy: Obituaries: Special Olympics: Seattle Times: In 1968, having witnessed her sister's struggles and triumphs, Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics. It came out of a love that only a sister can hold
In 1968, having witnessed her sister's struggles and triumphs, Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics. It came out of a love that only a sister can hold
In 1968, having witnessed her sister's struggles and triumphs, Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics. It came out of a love that only a sister can hold
Love builds special gift for a sister
Nicole Brodeur / Times staff columnist
Caption: A Kennedy family photo taken in 1937. Rosemary Kennedy (standing on R) the mildly retarded younger sister of slain US president John F. Kennedy, has died.(AFP/File)
At the time of her death on Friday, the woman had been living far from her family's Massachusetts roots for more than 60 years.
She was also removed from reality, childlike at 86.
What put her passing in the nation's papers was her last name: Kennedy.
But while Rosemary Kennedy was separated from her family's accomplishments, she was at the very center of those of her younger sister Eunice.
In 1968, having witnessed her sister's struggles and triumphs, Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics. It came out of a love that only a sister can hold.
Where one ends, the other begins. I know this like I know my own name.
People ask about my sister, Suzie, and my mood lifts like a liberated balloon. I start to speak in hyperbole. She is the most gorgeous woman, the most generous, so funny she brings me to tears.
She is my champion, my hero and my heart. She makes me want to be better than I am.
I suspect it was like that for Eunice: Always tagging behind, wanting to catch up to her big sister — they were just three years apart — until the point when she surpassed Rosemary not only in everyday tasks and academics but in embracing the Kennedy family expectations and structure.
In 1941, when Rosemary was 23, Joseph Kennedy arranged for his first daughter and third child to undergo a lobotomy. He believed the procedure — in which the frontal lobes of the brain are scraped away — would not only temper and control her moods, but, by some accounts, save the family from embarrassment.
In years to come, though, Eunice and older brother John F. Kennedy, later president, would speak openly of their sister's mental retardation.
Doing so not only removed the stigma for other families, but it also gave Eunice purpose.
In 1961, she and her husband, Sargent Shriver, helped establish the President's Committee on Mental Retardation. The following year, she created the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Awards in Mental Retardation.
The Special Olympics were established six years later, after Eunice was inspired by her big sister swimming in races like she was born to do it.
The games now include more than 1 million athletes in 150 countries.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work.
She also gave her sister a legacy by passing her devotion on to her own children: Robert Shriver raises money for the Special Olympics, Timothy is the organization's director and Anthony is an activist for the mentally retarded.
After her mother, Rose Kennedy, suffered a stroke in 1986, Eunice took over her sister's care and included her more in the family's activities.
She wouldn't let her sister be forgotten. Rather, she made sure she was better known.
How could a woman who lived and died like a child accomplish so much?
She had a sister who would do anything for her. And did.
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
She is grateful for the safe place.
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
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Story Source: Seattle Times
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