by guest contributor Kandie Stroud
Photo credit: Kandie Stroud
How many funerals have you attended that featured three presidents, a presidential candidate, the former Speaker of the House, singers extraordinaire Stevie Wonder and Sting, the Governor of California, Senator John Kerry and the entire Kennedy family? The answer is probably zero. And probably never again will that combination come together as it did in a star-studded congregation gathered to celebrate the formidable life of Ethel Kennedy in the majestic St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington where both President John F Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral Masses were held.
The four- hour event was rich with music, emotion and a hearty sprinkling of humor– as Ethel, known for her quick wit, would have wanted it. Each distinguished speaker began with the introduction: “Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr. President,” acknowledging the front row presence of former Chief executives Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and President Joe Biden. Each POTUS separately extolled Robert F. Kennedy’s widow and mother of 11 as a model mom, devout Catholic, passionate activist and social justice warrior who, said Biden, “gave everything she had to make it a better world.” Biden, who received thunderous applause and resounding ovations both as he took the podium and left it, gave a flawless eulogy, interrupted only by his own tears as he recounted Ethel Kennedy’s empathy and compassion at the time his wife and baby daughter were killed by a truck which slammed into their car at the time he was first elected to the Senate. “She was there.” Ethel, he said consoled him also when his son Beau died of cancer. “She was there, he repeated.” On a lighter note, the president recalled one Valentine’s Day when he received a card featuring a picture of him with Ethel surrounded by a heart which was captioned: “I’m not Biden’ my time waiting for you.” Biden said he had only two heroes: Robert F. Kennedy, whose bust he keeps in the Oval Office and Martin Luther King (whose son spoke yesterday).
President Obama remembered meeting Ethel Kennedy when he was just emerging on the political scene. “A little woman with bright blue eyes and a huge smile came up to me, held both my arms, looked me right in the eyes and said, “I like you! You’re going places!” Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi called Ethel “a national treasure” and characterized her as a woman of “deep faith.”
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Ethel’s eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend contributed fun stories about her mother. “Most mothers bring their children to the park to swoosh down the slide and swing on the swing. My Mom brought me and my brothers Bobby and Joe to the Senate Racket Committee Hearings on organized crime…Mummy wanted us to know what Daddy was doing.” RFK was chief counsel to the Senate Committee at the time and was cracking down on mob crime. She also remembered how Ethel “thought stop signs were mere suggestions.”
President Clinton said Ethel had called him when he was leaving the White House at the end of his presidency when Hillary was Senator from New York. Ethel teased Clinton, “You’re now a senate spouse.”
Daughter Kerry recalled phoning Ethel recently from Italy to ask her if there was “anything at all I can bring you?” Ethel quipped, “An Italian would do nicely.” Filmmaker Rory Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy’s eleventh and last child called her mother, “my staunchest supporter” and “a woman who led a beautiful and impactful life.” During the troubles with apartheid in South Africa Rory recalled watching the arrests of protestors at the South African Embassy on TV. She informed her mother that she and her brother Doug wanted to go join the protesters and “get arrested for apartheid,” to which Ethel replied, “Great. I’ll drive.” Rory managed to get arrested and cuffed. As she was sitting in the squad car in front of the Embassy, Rory said Ethel was looking at her through the window with the biggest smile on her face.
A surprise for the packed assembly –singer Stevie Wonder who performed,“ “Isn’t She Lovely,” as the audience clapped along. His rendition of The Lord’s Prayer left no dry eye in the house. Sting, the former song writer and bassist for the band Police, sang “Fragile.“ Country singer Kenny Chesney sang “You are My Sunshine.” Nova Tate, a singer from St. Martin’s Choir performed the Ave Maria.
Ethel was remembered as a daily communicant, a devotee of the rosary, and a lover of guests (“Friends and friends of friends are welcome. Just not friends of friends of friends”) She sometimes had 100 for lunch. She also collected animals. She surrounded herself with dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, goats, turtles, hawks, an armadillo, and even a seal. “Not sure where they kept the seal,” said Obama. A winner of trophies, she was also an outstanding athlete who won sailing, riding and tennis tournaments, and an avid skier who sometimes got lost skiing off-piste. Ethel was also an accomplished rider who loved horses, sometimes other peoples’ horses Once she and some of her children were riding in McLean, VA on old CIA trails when, spotting a distressed, starving nag, Ethel dismounted and insisted they take the emaciated horse home and save it. The owner sued and the front pages of the newspapers screamed words to the effect “wife of Attorney General arrested as a horse thief.”
Tears and laughter abounded as the amazing and beautiful service as well an era of almost a century came to an end. We’ll never see her likes again.
