Enlarge AP file photo Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died at the age of 88, laughs during a satirical presentation in Washington in April 1968. KEY DATES IN THE LIFE OF EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER: KEY DATES IN THE LIFE OF EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER: July 10, 1921 Born in Brookline, Mass., the fifth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy 1943 Graduates from Stanford University with a bachelor of science degree in sociology 1944 Brother Joseph Kennedy is killed in World War II at age 29 1948 Sister Kathleen Kennedy is killed in a plane crash in France at age 28 1953 Marries Robert Sargent Shriver Jr . 1954 Son Robert Sargent Shriver III is born 1955 Daughter Maria Owings Shriver is born 1957 Takes over operation of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, which was named after her brother 1959 Son Timothy Perry Shriver is born 1962 Begins a summer day camp at her home in Maryland for developmentally disabled children and adults 1963 Brother John F. Kennedy is killed in Dallas at age 46 1964 Son Mark Kennedy Shriver is born 1965 Son Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver is born 1968 Brother Robert Kennedy is killed in California at age 42 while campaigning for president; six weeks later, the Kennedy Foundation and Chicago Parks Department host the first Special Olympics at Soldier Field 1984 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan 1995 Mother Rose Kennedy dies at age 104 2002 Awarded the Theodore Roosevelt Award by the National Collegiate Athletic Association 2003 Her husband discloses he is suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's disease 2005 Sister Rosemary Kennedy, the inspiration for the Special Olympics, dies at age 86 2006 Sister Patricia Kennedy Lawford dies at age 82 Sources: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, Special Olympics Enlarge AP file photo Eunice Shriver arrives at the Golden Jubilee Gala of the Viennese Opera Ball at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel in January 2005.

Shriver poured heart, soul into helping disabled

Eunice Kennedy Shriver , sister of a president and U.S. senators, was lauded after her death Tuesday for a towering achievement of her own: ending the stigma associated with mental disabilities.

Shriver died at a hospital near the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. She was 88 and had suffered several strokes in recent years.

Shriver — spurred by her love for her developmentally disabled sister, Rosemary — devoted much of her life to raising money and awareness to help people with mental disabilities. Her signature accomplishment was the founding of the Special Olympics, which sponsors competitions for disabled athletes.

"If you don't have an idea that materializes and changes a person's life, then what have you got?" Shriver said to USA TODAY in 2006. "You have talk, you have research, you have telephone calls, you have meetings, but you don't have a change in the community."

READ ENTIRE FAMILY STATEMENT: Expresses shock, grief

With Shriver's death, only two of her eight siblings are still living: Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jean Kennedy Smith.

Her younger brother, who is fighting brain cancer, praised his sister's "boundless passion to make a difference."

"She understood deeply the lesson our mother and father taught us — much is expected of those to whom much has been given," the senator said in a statement.

A family spokesman says a public wake will be held Thursday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church in the Centerville section of Barnstable, not far from the family's Hyannis Port compound.

Family members gathered privately on Tuesday night. The family did not immediately announce plans for a funeral service.

Such praise came from around the globe and across party lines.

"She is an American original, and the world will be a poorer place for her absence," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.

Pope Benedict XVI also sent condolences to Shriver's family, as did President Obama, who hailed her as "a champion for people with intellectual disabilities."

Among her siblings, Shriver "was the most competitive of the family," said historian James Hilty of Temple University, author of a biography of Shriver's brother, Robert Kennedy. "Her father said if she'd been born (a boy), she would've been president," he said.

Eunice Kennedy was born July 10, 1921, the fifth of nine children, to Joseph and Rose Kennedy in Brookline, Mass. She attended Catholic schools and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Stanford University in 1943.

She held jobs in social work but kept a hand in politics. She campaigned for her brothers: John, who became president; Robert, a New York senator; and Edward.

In 1953, she married Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., who ran for vice president with George McGovern on the 1972 Democratic ticket, and he helped found the Peace Corps and Head Start, the child-development program.

The couple had five children, including Maria, a former TV reporter married to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; Mark, a former Maryland state legislator; and Tim, who is chairman of the board for the Special Olympics.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver's sister Rosemary, born with mental retardation made worse by a surgical lobotomy, spent most of her adult life at a private institution and died in 2005. Shriver devoted much of her energies to countering the social stigma once attached to mental disabilities.

"If I never met Rosemary, never known anything about handicapped children, how would I have ever found out? Because nobody accepted them anyplace," she told National Public Radio in 2007.

In 1957, she became head of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, which helped fund Roman Catholic organizations and those that benefited the mentally disabled. In 1962, she opened her Maryland estate to a summer camp for mentally disabled children.

In July 1968, just weeks after Robert Kennedy was killed while campaigning for president, about 1,000 people from 26 U.S. states and Canada participated in the first Special Olympics at Soldier Field in Chicago. Shriver persuaded Chicago officials to join with her foundation to sponsor it.

Today, the organization says it serves almost 3 million children in 180 countries.

Shriver brought a dose of Kennedy charisma to the causes she championed, said Bob Johnson, head of the Massachusetts branch of the Special Olympics.

"She was a magnet," he said. "Anywhere that she was, people would just crowd around her."

Her children testified to the drive that helped her overcome prejudice and inertia. "When I feel a little daunted," her son Robert said in 2007, "I think about, 'What would Mother do?' The answer is, run them over."

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook