eunice kennedy shriver

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the rights of the mentally impaired, is hospitalized in critical but stable condition, a hospital official said on Friday.Shriver, 88, was admitted to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts, according to hospital spokeswoman Robin Lord, who declined to give further details of her illness.She is surrounded by her husband, long-time Washington figure Sargent Shriver, children and grandchildren, Lord said.The family is grateful for the prayers of her many friends," Lord said.In 1968, Shriver, the sister of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and mother-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, founded the Special Olympics Games, which are is dedicated to the physical fitness of those with mental impairments.Her advocacy was largely influenced by the challenges faced by her older sister, Rosemary, who was mentally impaired.Kennedy was educated at The Convent of the Sacred Heart, Roehampton, London, England, and in 1944 graduated from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with a Bachelor of Science in Social Science/Social Thought, after which she went to work for the U.S. Department of State, in the Special War Problems division.

In 1950, she became a social worker at the then-named Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, and the following year she moved to Chicago, Illinois, to work with the House of the Good Shepherd and the Chicago Juvenile Court.On May 23, 1953, she married Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. at Roman Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, New York.

Her husband served as the U.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970 and was the Democratic U.S. Vice Presidential candidate in 1972 (with George McGovern as the candidate for U.S. President).They have five children: Robert Sargent Shriver III (born April 28, 1954), Maria Owings Shriver (November 6, 1955), Timothy Perry Shriver (August 29, 1959), Mark Kennedy Shriver (February 17, 1964), and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (July 20, 1965).

With her husband, she has twenty-one grandchildren, the second-most of any of the children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. Her late brother U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy had eleven children who have produced thirty-two grandchildren.Upon the death of her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, on January 7, 2005, Shriver became the eldest of the four then-surviving children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.