Women's History Month: Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice was born in 1921 in Brookline Massachusetts. She is the daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a prominent business man and political leader, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, daughter of a Boston mayor. An athletic child, Eunice had a competitive spirit, much like the rest of her siblings. She graduated from Stanford in 1944 with a BA in Social Science, and in 1953 married Robert Sargent Shriver. Mr. Shriver would go on to hold many important political offices, including being appointed the first Director of the Peace Corps by President Kennedy and Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1961, Eunice along with her brother, President Kennedy, established the Presidential Committee on Mental Retardation. Then a condition considered shameful, Eunice and President Kennedy together began to de-stigmatize intellectual disabilities, and heal a long standing family wound brought about by the treatment of their sister Rosemary. Shortly after, in 1962, she also established the NICHD, created to investigate human development as a means of understanding developmental disabilities, including mental retardation. Still going strong, this month the organization was renamed the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD.

In 1962 she received a call from a mother who could not find a summer camp that would take her disabled child. Understanding the mother's situation, Eunice invited her over along with 35 other young boys and girls with intellectual disabilities to enjoy a day of sports and games at her home in Rockville Maryland. With this Camp Shriver was born, and the children enjoyed a summertime of sports and fun. Eunice was reported to teach many of the classes herself.

The following year Eunice utilized her position of Vice President of the Joseph P Kennedy Jr. Foundation to create and support additional Camp Shrivers across the county. Its popularity grew, and when Eunice received a request in 1968 from Anne Burke, a physical education teacher for the Chicago Parks District (who would go onto become a part of the Illinois Supreme Court) to hold a special event, she latched onto the idea and worked with them to launch the first Special Olympics.

Today the Special Olympics is known throughout the world, and is the only other sporting event globally authorized to use the word "Olympics" in its title. Eunice remains an honorary chair of the Special Olympics, and continues to be an active voice for children with intellectual disabilities, carrying to these special populations the mantra that opened the first Special Olympics, "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

By the launch of the Special Olympics, Eunice and her husband had five children, one of whom would go onto marry the current governor of California. To learn more about what Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger is doing to make a difference for the children of Los Angeles click here.