Rory Kennedy is remembering her niece Kyle Kennedy as a beloved mother and educator after her death 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 Kennedy said in a statement to People published Oct. 20.
Rory Kennedy described her niece as "funny and fierce and much beloved by all of us," and added that "she will be deeply missed."
Rory Kennedy is Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy's youngest of 11 children. She's the younger sister of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Michael L. Kennedy, who was Kyle Kennedy's father.
Kyle Kennedy dead at 42
Kyle, a granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy
and Ethel Kennedy, died Sept. 21 at her home in Westwood, Massachusetts, according to her obituary. Her cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.
In 2020, Kyle sustained a severe spinal cord injury that caused long-term paralysis and other medical complications. She subsequently advocated for people with disabilities, including testifying at the Massachusetts State House about discrimination in health care, her obituary said.
"The years that followed brought struggles, but Kyle fought to maintain her dry wit and determination through it all, trying to be the best possible mother to her sons and caring for her two beloved, ill-behaved Wheaten terriers," Kennedy's obituary reads.
Her career in education began in New York City, where she spent two years teaching in public schools through Teach for America. She later worked with education technology companies and coached teachers, according to her obituary.
She studied history at Georgetown University before earning a master's degree in early education from Pace University. At Harvard's Graduate School of Education, she earned another master's degree in education policy and management.
Kennedy is survived by her sons, Conor and Declan, 10; her former husband, Liam; her mother, Victoria; her brother, Michael; and her sister, Rory. Her daughter Josie, Conor's twin, died days after birth.
Funeral services for Kyle were private, according to her obituary.
The Kennedy curse? Other family deaths
In addition to the loss of her infant child, Kyle Kennedy also lost her father, attorney and businessman Michael L. Kennedy, died in a skiing accident in Aspen Mountain Colorado in 1997.
Her grandfather, Democratic politician and New York senator Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 following a shooting at a Los Angeles hotel. Similarly her great uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was also assassinated in 1963 while riding in a limousine in Dallas. His son John F. Kennedy Jr., and daughter-in-law, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, died in a 1999 plane crash off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Other Kennedy death's include Tatiana Schlossberg, a granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy and daughter of Caroline Kennedy who died Dec. 30, 2025, at 35 after disclosing a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia.
In 2020, Robert F. Kennedy's granddaughter and cousin of Kyle Kennedy, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, and her 8-year-old son, Gideon, died after a canoe outing on the Chesapeake Bay.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rory Kennedy pays tribute to niece Kyle Kennedy after her death at 42
