A public wake will be held Thursday followed by a private funeral Friday for Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
The sister of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Shriver, 88, died Tuesday. She is widely credited with changing perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities.
Thousands are expected to attend a wake for Shriver Thursday at Our Lady of Victory Roman Catholic Church in Centerville, Mass., which is open to the public from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Special Olympics will then take center stage at Shriver’s funeral Friday. A group of Special Olympians and law enforcement officers will carry the Special Olympics torch into a Hyannis, Mass. church ahead of Shriver’s casket and her family for mass. The service is not open to the public, but will be streamed live beginning at 10 a.m. on Shriver’s Web site. A private burial will take place at an undisclosed time.
Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968 inspired in part by her sister Rosemary who had an intellectual disability and died in 2005. The sporting movement grew out of a summer camp Shriver hosted at her home for children with disabilities.
