Ethel Kennedy

yeah, not starlight, the lucky one.

Well, I'm thinking Starlight because she's talking about, it's the same type of, like she picked a figure, Ethel and Bobby Kennedy, and wrote a story for them in song.

Here she picked a figure and then she was like, but also you want to know how I'm really connected to that figure? I bought her house.

Yeah.

lot of money.

And Taylor loves to do her songs that are like, again, we mentioned that Marvelous.

I think Bobby and Ethel were married in the 30s or the 40s.

And also, a dynasty family.

She writes a story about, again, her grief, how she did, how am I doing? Jackie Kennedy never did this, ever.

Ethel Kennedy never did it.

It's just a different...

They, they would say, "It's not about me.

But I think she, like, let her grandkids get away with, with things, and I think she...

Yeah, I just, I think she softened, and she allowed herself to have a bit more fun than just being a grieving Kennedy Catholic widow, you know?

Good for her.

I'm fascinated by Ethel.

Where we been? What is that? Oh, my God.

You're a virgin? Yeah, Ethel Kennedy virgin.

What are you? Please, ladies, I don't want to be rough.

But let's face it.

Yeah.

And I think Ethel Kennedy is one of the most fascinating Kennedys.

And she is a married into the family Kennedy.

So we have to talk about Bobby to talk about Ethel.

Let's get through boring Bobby first.

Well, as always, the sources are in the show notes.

All right.

Should we talk a

And then when I started my business, I really wasn't free.

From there, just, I mean, we opened the store and my first client was Ethel Kennedy.

And so, you know, I think that I grew up in a family.

And of course, there's my father, but also my mother and other wonderful people like, you know, Eunice Kennedy Shriver is my aunt who started the Special Olympics and, you You know, Edward Kennedy was a wonderful senator from Massachusetts, you know, not to mention John F. Kennedy, wonderful president.

I certainly think I was influenced by my family.

And then, you know, I think growing up.

My mother and my family, we were really surrounded by kind of extraordinary people.

And I was lucky enough at a pretty young age and multiple times in my life to visit places like South Africa and meet Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu and other just like super inspirational people.

And I think that we were also surrounded by their stories and other kind of very heroic people.

And I think it had an influence on me and who I am and kind of the work that I just – It feels very genuine in terms of what I want to do and trying to highlight other people's stories and amplify them in a way that I think is helpful and contributory.

Welcome to this deep dive.

Today's mission is an original narrative biography of Ethel Skakel Kennedy.

Yeah.

We are going way beyond just the famous last name today.

Because I'm trying to picture her early life, right? If she wasn't born a Kennedy, what kind of world actually shaped her?

Well, to understand her baseline, you have to look at Chicago in 1928.

She was born Ethel Skakel, and her father, George Skakel, was the founder of the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation.

Okay, so carbon.

Ethyl Kennedy.

Ethel Kennedy, sorry about that, Kennedy clan.

See, I can never again step into Hyannis without feeling scorned.

I'm sorry, Ethel Kennedy as well.

Outdated boys' names as we wrap things up.

Elmer, as I teased there in the open.