WASHINGTON: Ethel Kennedy, a long-time human rights advocate who endured a series of tragedies that included the assassination of her husband, Robert F Kennedy, and the untimely deaths of two of their 11 children, died on Thursday at the age of 96, her grandson Joseph Kennedy III said in a social media post.

`It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week,` Kennedy said in a post on X. Kennedy, who was a devout Catholic, sought to carry on her husband`s works with the founding of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights centre.

She was the mother of former independent presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F Kennedy Jr, who recently broke from his family`s traditional Democratic affiliation to endorse Donald Trump.

Ethel had been by her husband`s side throughout his career and was beside him when he lay in a hotel kitchen in 1968, mortally wounded by an assassin`s bullet.-Reuters