The granddaughter of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy died at her Massachusetts home on Sept. 21, six years after a spinal cord injury left her paralyzed. She was an educator and, in her final years, an advocate for people with disabilities.
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy has paid tribute to her niece Kyle Kennedy, who died last month at 42.
"Kyle was a wonder – as mother of her beautiful boys, as a daughter, a sister, a friend. And as an educator, too," Rory said in a statement to People on Tuesday. She called her niece "funny and fierce and much beloved by all of us," and added, "She will be deeply missed."
Rory is the youngest of Robert F. "Bobby" Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children. Kyle was one of their 34 grandchildren, the daughter of Michael LeMoyne Kennedy and Victoria Denise Gifford.
Advocate after injury
According to her obituary, Kyle died at her home in Westwood, Massachusetts, on Sept. 21. Six years earlier she had suffered a severe spinal cord injury that left her with long-term paralysis.
In her final years she spoke up for people living with disabilities, including testimony at the Massachusetts State House during a hearing on discrimination in health care for disabled patients.
A life in education
Kyle was born in Washington, D.C., on July 6, 1984. Her father died in a skiing accident in 1997, at 39. She attended Milton Academy, then studied history at Georgetown University.
After college she taught in New York City through Teach For America. She went on to earn a master’s degree in early education from Pace University and a master’s in education policy and management from Harvard.
Kyle married Liam Kerr in 2012; her obituary refers to him as her former husband. Together they had twins, Conor and Josephine, though Josephine died days after birth, and later a son, Declan. Conor is now 12 and Declan 10.
She is also survived by her mother, her siblings Michael, 43, and Rory, 38, who shares her aunt’s name, and four nieces and nephews.
Reporting in this story is based on coverage first published by Page Six, citing a statement to People. The photographs are stock file images.
