HYANNIS, MASS. (WHDH) - Neighbors in Hyannisport reflected on Ethel Kennedy’s impact in the community, as news of her death spread Thursday.
On Cape Cod, where the Kennedys have summered since the 1920s, Barnstable police have set up a road block to keep people from approaching the home where Ethel lived on the family compound since 1961.
An American flag on the compound was lowered to half-staff by a longtime security guard.
Ethel Kennedy had many memories at the Hyannisport home — hosting children’s birthday celebrations during the day and celebrities at dinner parties at night.
“They’ve been here a long time. And now, she’s gone. I’ve been to their house a few times, but you know, it’s too bad. She’ll be greatly missed,” said neighbor Michael Hennesse.
Dying at 96 from complications of a stroke she suffered in her sleep a week ago, Ethel Kennedy’s remarkable life and accomplishments through her work at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation will be long remembered.
Ethel’s daughter Kerry Kennedy released a family statement, which reads in part, “… we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy; her children David and Michael; her daughter-in-law Mary; her grandchildren Maeve and Saoirse; and her great-grandchildren Gideon and Josie.”
The Kennedys, long considered a quasi-royal family in the United States, have lost another matriarch.
“I don’t know, it just kind of makes me sad, kind of unexpectedly. You know, I didn’t think I’d react this way. She’s really the last of the Camelot era,” said Thomas Whalen, Boston University professor.
Her family said Ethel was deeply religious and received Holy Communion every day.
She regularly attended Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville — the same church where she mourned the passing of her son Michael in 1997 after a skiing accident in Colorado. David died 13 years earlier of a drug overdose.
“She was essential to her husband Robert Kennedy’s political career, because Robert Kennedy, his nickname was ‘Ruthless Bobby.’ He was kind of a hard-edge guy, but she kind of put a human face on him,” Whalen said.
Whalen said Ethel had a vivacious spirit — one which will certainly be missed by her family as they mourn her death.
The Kennedys have long looked to the sea for solace, and Ethel’s son Maxwell was seen coming back from a sail aboard the family boat Wednesday.
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