WASHINGTON - Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy and founder of the Special Olympics movement, has died at the age of 88.

The family says Shriver died early Tuesday in a hospital near her home in the seaside town of Hyannis, in the eastern state of Massachusetts.   

Shriver, who belonged to a powerful political dynasty, had suffered a series of strokes.

She founded the Special Olympics in 1968, an athletic event for mentally disabled children which is now held in more than 150 countries. The move was inspired, in part, by her mentally disabled sister Rosemary.

The organization said in a statement that Shriver “changed the world for the better like few others in history.”

A family statement said her life taught what it means to live a “faith-driven life of love and service to others.”

Her brother Senator Edward Kennedy, who has been a leading liberal in Congress since 1962 and is battling brain cancer, said Shriver deeply understood a Kennedy clan lesson - “that much is expected of those to whom much has been given.”

President Barack Obama praised Shriver as “an extraordinary woman” who taught the world that “no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit”.

Shriver’s eight siblings also included the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was slain while campaigning for president in 1968.

Shriver’s husband, five children and 19 grandchildren were by her side when she passed away Tuesday.

Her husband R. Sargent Shriver was the first director of the U.S. Peace Corps and a 1972 vice presidential candidate. Her daughter Maria, a former U.S. television journalist, is married to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Source:  VOA News