Mourners pay tribute to Eunice Kennedy Shriver; Maria Shriver, grandchildren greet them

Mourners pay respects to Eunice Shriver at wake

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — Eunice Kennedy Shriver was celebrated by family members as a passionate humanitarian and a pious woman devoid of vanity on Thursday night, hours after thousands of mourners flocked to a white and gray clapboard church to pay their respects to the founder of the Special Olympics.

“She was pious, I think a very, very pious woman,” Shriver’s nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a mass service that capped a six-hour public wake for Shriver. He said his godmother would immediately change her clothing after swimming — not caring who might be looking at her.

“People would go, ‘Eunice!’ And she would say ‘if you don’t like it, don’t look,’” Kennedy said to a laughter in the church.

Among the steady stream of mourners who flowed into church was Mike Rhodes, a 25-year-old mentally disabled man who left a handmade card for Shriver.

On it was written a simple message: “She taught us to stand tall.”

Hundreds turned out for the wake at Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church, where Shriver regularly attended services and where President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, was married to Edward Schlossberg in 1986. Shriver’s casket was surrounded by Kennedy family photos — many featuring family members with world leaders — and pictures of Shriver from the Special Olympics.

Shriver, the sister of President Kennedy and Sen. Edward Kennedy, had suffered a series of strokes in recent years and died at Cape Cod Hospital on Tuesday in the company of her husband, her five children and her 19 grandchildren.

She was also the sister of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; the wife of 1972 vice presidential candidate R. Sargent Shriver; the mother of former NBC newswoman Maria Shriver; and the mother-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Loretta Claiborne, 55, a Special Olympian, described Shriver as a friend, and said she left a legacy of helping all kinds of people.

“When I was standing at her casket, I put my head down and said, ‘God, let me be part of this legacy to keep her legacy going,’” Claiborne said.

Family members attended a private wake before the doors opened to the public.

Ted Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer did not attend. Spokesman Keith Maley said the senator’s schedule was day-to-day and it was unclear if he would attend Friday’s invitation-only funeral Mass at St. Francis Xavier church in Hyannis.

Vice President Joe Biden is one of the dignitaries planning to attend the funeral.

On Thursday, mourners entering the church were greeted and thanked by one of Shriver’s grandchildren. Maria Shriver also greeted well-wishers while her husband, Schwarzenegger, sat in the church, talking with relatives.

In a message sent Thursday on Twitter, Schwarzenegger said his mother-in-law might well have wanted to focus the attention elsewhere.

“Being here right now, I can just hear Eunice saying, ‘Don’t make this so much about me. Make this a call to service.’” Schwarzenegger wrote.

Kennedy Jr. said his aunt was a great humanitarian who saw value in every human being.

“There is so much pride and love about her, that it’s really been a joyful time for (the family) rather than a time of great sadness,” he said. He added that it was also great to spend time with his uncle, the senator. Ted Kennedy had come to most of the family events and continues to sail most every day, Kennedy Jr. said.

TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick were among those who paid respects to Shriver, arriving at the packed Cape Cod church shortly before the start of a Thursday evening prayer service. Winfrey and Maria Shriver worked together at a Baltimore TV station early in their careers.

Shriver’s creation of the Special Olympics and her efforts to bring the mentally disabled into the mainstream were inspired in part by the struggles of her sister Rosemary, who was given a lobotomy at age 23 and spent the rest of her life in an institution. She revealed her sister’s condition to the nation during her brother’s presidency in a 1962 article for the Saturday Evening Post.

Now more than 3 million athletes in more than 160 countries participate in Special Olympics. Well into her 70s, she remained a daily presence at the Special Olympics headquarters.

While many came to the wake to honor Shriver some, like Kathleen Dee Horgan, 82, said it was a bond to the Kennedy family as a whole that brought her to the church.

The retired nurse, who lives not far from the family’s Hyannis Port compound, recalled that Kennedy matriarch Rose Kennedy sent her a get well letter after an accident she had as a child.

“I have always felt as if I were part of their family,” said Horgan, who said a prayer as she knelt in front of Shriver’s casket.