She died this morning at Cape Cod Hospital, near the Kennedy family’s traditional summer compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Here’s the statement from her son, Timothy Shriver, now the chairman of the Special Olympics.
Her faith in the athletes of Special Olympics was unfailing, even from the very start. When she was young and Special Olympics was still just an idea, few people particularly cared or knew about people with intellectual disabilities… And yet, though others could not see, she still believed, conceiving Special Olympics in her heart before she could unveil it on the field of play.
She believed that people with intellectual disabilities could — individually and collectively — achieve more than anyone thought possible.