What is Rosemary Kennedys sister Eunice Shriver famous for?
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (July 10, 1921) is a member of the Kennedy family and helped to found Special Olympics in the 1960s as a national organization. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.A., she is the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald). A longtime advocate for children’s health and disability issues, Shriver was a key founder of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a part of the National Institutes of Health, in 1962, and has also helped to establish numerous other health-care facilities and support networks throughout the country. In 1968, Shriver founded the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Community of Caring at The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. She was awarded the nation’s highest civilian award, the (U.S.) Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, because of her work on behalf of those with mental retardation.[8] For her work in founding the
Rose Marie Kennedy was the third child and first daughter of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, born a year after the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. She underwent a lobotomy at the age of 23, after which she was mentally incapacitated for the rest of her life. She was christened Rose Marie Kennedy and commonly called Rosemary. To her family and friends, she was known as “Rosie”. Her mother was Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, her father Joseph Patrick Kennedy. Rosemary has been described as being a shy child whose I.Q. tests reportedly indicated a mild retardation. Diaries written by Rosemary in the late 1930s and published in the 1980s, reveal a happy, unsophisticated young woman whose life was filled with outings to the opera, tea dances, dress fittings, and other social interests. She also was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during her father’s tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Britain. On her way out of the presentation she tripped and almost fell. Placid and easygoing as a child and t
Shriver is best known for her work in founding the Special Olympics for handicapped athletes. Her influence on her brother, the former president, is credited with the push in 1963 to pass the first law in US history to protect and support the rights of the mentally disabled. Sources: earthtimes.
