"What a great moment for me, my son, the world. What you have made possible for so many people defies all reason." LOWELL WEICKER, JR.
Former United States Senator

Mrs. Shriver's Family

As a member of America's First Family, our version of Britain's Royal Family, Eunice has had a spotlight pointed at or around her for her entire life, first as a daughter, then as a sister and finally as a mother. The pressure of trying to compete with famous parents, famous siblings, and, later, even your own famous progeny, would seem to be a daunting task. It just never seemed so to Eunice.

"She is the single most competitive person I have ever known," says her daughter, Maria, the First Lady of California and the second oldest of five children born to Eunice and Sargent Shriver. Maria believes that her mother's competitiveness came from her mother, Rose, an extraordinary woman who suffered so much tragedy yet remained the prototypical Public Woman, a philanthropist, patron, and, as much as anything, the motivating force for her accomplished brood.

The youngest Kennedy son, Teddy, thought that Eunice's place in the family (she was the middle of nine children) was a factor in Eunice's go-get-'em attitude. "Her older brothers [Joe and Jack] were very active," says the senior senator from Massachusetts. "They were athletes, very good students and had a lot of friends. Eunice had to compete. Around her brothers and sisters, she always seemed to try a little harder, be a little more involved and a little more engaged."

Competitiveness is not always a good thing, of course, not if it's entirely self-directed. Eunice's was not. Yes, she was motivated to keep up with the Kennedys in games and organized sports (she loved swimming) and academics. But from an early age she directed her competitive fever toward Rosemary, her older sister. Taking care of a person with intellectual disability was even more difficult back in the 1930s and 1940s when Eunice herself was a young woman, trying to find her identity and her place in the Kennedy legacy. But Eunice saw it as a challenge.

"Eunice was the one who spent the extra time with Rosemary, teaching her, working with her, and making sure that Rosemary felt included," says Teddy. "My mother was very supportive and very involved, and my father as well, but among our brothers and sisters Eunice was the one that took the extra time. All of us could see the joy that relationship gave Rosemary, and the difference it made in her life. It was that spirit that Eunice showed so early, of course, that eventually gave rise to Special Olympics."

Had Eunice been born in a later time-who knows?-perhaps she would've gone into politics. Perhaps she would've been the "President Kennedy" or the "Senator Kennedy" we came to know. She always campaigned actively for her brothers. But, in a way, as she blazed her trail and the brothers blazed theirs, Eunice could be considered the most political person in her family, if you define politics as accomplishing things for the public good.