Special Olympics athletes and members of the fabled Kennedy family were joined Friday by celebrities Oprah Winfrey, Jon Bon Jovi and Stevie Wonder to celebrate the life of Eunice Kennedy Shriver at a funeral mass in Hyannis, Mass. (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
Shriver’s only living brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling brain cancer, did not attend the funeral.
Thousands lined the streets outside St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, where Shriver, who died Tuesday at 88, was eulogized for changing the lives of millions by founding the Special Olympics.
“She was scary smart and not afraid to show it,” Maria Shriver said of her mother, The Associated Press reported. “If she were here today … she would pound this podium … and ask each of you what you have done today to better the world.”
Maria Shriver, her husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and members of their family carried the casket into the church where Bono led three Irish musicians in singing Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young.”
Shriver’s 19 grandchildren offered prayers after listening to a welcome from Special Olympian Loretta Claiborne, who said that Shriver served “the weakest of the weak, the castaways of society. At the time they would say ‘the mentally retarded.'”
———
Talk back! Have something to say? E-mail us at thetalk@tribune.com
