Ethel Kennedy, matriarch of the famous family, dies at 96

Ethel Kennedy, who lost her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, and brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, to assassins’ bullets, and who channeled her grief into raising her 11 children and lifetime of public service, died Thursday. She was 96.Kennedy had recently suffered a stroke and was receiving treatment when she died, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., a grandson, said in a statement posted on X.”It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy,” the statement said. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.”Born Ethel Skakel on April 11, 1928, in Chicago, Kennedy’s life was marked by tragedy even before Sirhan Sirhan made her a widow in 1968 by gunning down her husband while he was running for president. Kennedy’s parents, coal magnate George Skakel and his wife, Ann Brannack Skakel, were killed in a 1955 plane crash.Kennedy met her future husband in 1945 at a ski resort in…