Page 25 - JOA-Sept-2021

intellectual disabilities based on the Olympic Eunice 100th Birthday
tradition and spirit. In 2019, nearly 115,000 Today, many of Eunice’s children
Special Olympics sports competitions were continue her work with the disabled
hosted around the world, with more than 5.7 community and Special Olympics. On what
million athletes from 200 countries. would have been her 100th birthday, July 10,
2021, Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s family
A Legacy of Service to Others celebrated her Special Olympics legacy and
Recognized throughout the world for her spoke in the magazine PEOPLE about her
efforts on behalf of persons with intellectual relationship with Rosemary in the later years.
disabilities, Eunice Kennedy Shriver received “‘She’d sit with Rosemary, play flash cards
many honors and awards during her lifetime. with her, and try to help with her speech. She’d
Among them is the U.S. Presidential Medal of order all the sweets Rosemary loved — angel
Freedom, the highest honor awarded to Eunice Kennedy Shriver engaging with athletes in Ireland food cake, puddings, creams,” says Tim, who
civilians in the U.S. When awarding her this today serves as the chairman on the Special
prestigious honor, then President Ronald Reagan said of her, “Her Olympics board. ‘It made Mommy happy that she’d found a way to
decency and goodness have touched the lives of many, and Eunice bring Rosemary back to life, back to the family.’
Kennedy Shriver deserves America’s praise, gratitude and love.” Yet, “By giving Rosemary what she missed in the two decades she was
she always felt that it was people with intellectual disabilities who hidden from loved ones, Eunice became a “model for a new generation
deserved the awards. on how to include a sibling with an intellectual disability and not to be
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, forever linked to empowering the disabled embarrassed,” says Eunice’s daughter Maria Shriver, 65. “That’s the big
and for her founding role in the Special Olympics, died of a stroke at age thing. If you see people with special needs going to the White House,
88 on August 11, 2005. which Mommy made happen for the first time, then you’re like, ‘Wow,
“When the full judgment of that can happen.’
the Kennedy legacy is made, “‘Eunice continued to set an example when
including JFK.’s Peace Corps her grandchildren visited her homes in
and Alliance for Progress, Maryland and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
Robert Kennedy’s passion for “‘I was so amazed by the way my grand-
civil rights and Ted Kennedy’s mother would hear Rosemary and then
efforts on health care, workplace translate to all of us,’ says Kathleen, who
reform and refugees, the changes remembers how Rosemary would sit with
wrought by Eunice Shriver may Eunice at the head of the dining table. ‘And
well be seen as the most conse- I was like, that is the coolest friendship ever.’”
quential,” U.S. News & World 1998 Special Olympics Participation Medal (awarded
Vintage 1980s Special Olympics t-shirt Report said in its cover story of during the 30th year of Special Olympics) given to an
selling at Etsy.com for $44.99 Nov. 15, 1993. athlete for ten years of competing, selling for $30 on eBay

September 2021 23