Mourners Honor Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Hundreds honor founder of Special Olympics
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2009 4:31 PM CDT
Mourners Honor Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Maria Shriver puts her arm around Special Olympian multiple medalist Loretta Claiborne during a wake at Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church, in Barnstable, Mass., Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009.   (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

Several hundred people mourned Eunice Kennedy Shriver at a wake today in Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Times reports. Husband Sargent Shriver, daughter Maria, and son-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger were joined by family, friends, and others appreciative of Shriver’s advocacy for the disabled through the Special Olympics. "Eunice's life was such an example of the best of our country," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The funeral at 10am tomorrow will be streamed live at www.eunicekennedyshriver.org.

"She literally changed people's perceptions of an entire segment of society," said the director of a Cape Cod disability services agency. "As a result of what she was able to do, the disabled had the opportunity to do things they otherwise wouldn't have dreamed of. As a result of her generosity, they have self-esteem, confidence, things that carry over into the rest of their lives."
(More funeral stories.)

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