Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Leader in the Field of Intellectual Disability and Creator of the Special Olympics

Eunice Kennedy, a leader in the field of intellectual disability, was born at the Kennedy family home on Abbotsford Road in Brookline, MA on July 10, 1921. She was the fifth child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy’s nine children and their third daughter.

Read full biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and watch the video, Eunice Kennedy Shriver 100: A Legacy of Inclusion, produced on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth by the National Park Service and Brookline Interactive Group.

Eunice began her career as a social worker for women prisoners and juvenile offenders. In 1957 she headed up the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation, dedicated to improving the way society deals with mental retardation. Her camp for children and adults with intellectual disabilities inspired her to create the Special Olympics, which spread to 150+ countries. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan presented Eunice with the Medal of Honor for her life's work. Read about the Special Olympics.

John, Jean and Eunice Kennedy reconnect with their ancestors in County Wexford.

Photo courtesy of JFK Library

Eunice also had a deep connection to her brother, President John F. Kennedy. She and her sister Jean Kennedy Smith traveled with President Kennedy on his famous trip to Ireland in June 1963, where they reconnected with their ancestors in Wexford, Ireland. Read about the visit.

Eunice planting a silver birch tree at the JFK Park and Arboretum in Wexford

Five years after JFK's assassination in November, 1963, Eunice returned to Ireland in May 1968 to formally open the John F. Kennedy Park and Arboretum in County Wexford, not far from the Kennedy family's ancestral home in the village of Dunganstown in New Ross. The ceremony took place on what would have been JFK's 51st birthday. Read about the visit.

Learn more about Eunice and the Kennedy family at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum on Cape Cod, and the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.

Boston Irish Tourism Association (BITA) has compiled a list of Kennedy landmarks across Massachusetts. Read more BITA stories about John F. Kennedy, his family and administration.

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