Tonight:
9°c
Thousands of mourners joined family members at a public wake for Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
The founder of the Special Olympics and younger sister of John F Kennedy will be laid to rest today at a private funeral Mass.
But yesterday the extended Kennedy clan, including Mrs Shriver's daughter, Maria, and her husband, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, welcomed the public to the family's local Roman Catholic church in Cape Cod,
The humanitarian, pictured right, died on Tuesday aged 88 after a series of strokes. People with learning disabilities were among those who attended the wake at Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church.
Her nephew, Robert F Kennedy Jr, described her as a "very, very pious woman".
The service celebrated her tireless campaigning for people with disabilities, inspired by her sister Rosemary, who spent much of her life in an institution.
Among the mourners was Mike Rhodes, a 25-year-old mentally disabled man who left a handmade card saying: "She taught us to stand tall."
Mrs Shriver leaves her husband Sargent and five children.
