Kyle Kennedy, a granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy and a former educator who became an advocate for people with disabilities, died Sept. 21 at her home in Westwood, Massachusetts. She was 42.
Burke Funeral Homes confirmed the death in an obituary. Services were private, and a cause of death was not released. According to the obituary, Kennedy had faced multiple health challenges in recent years after sustaining a severe spinal cord injury in 2020 that led to long-term paralysis, disability and other medical difficulties.
The obituary described Kennedy as someone who maintained her dry humor and resolve despite those hardships. It said she focused on being the best mother she could be to her sons and cared for her two “beloved, ill-behaved” Wheaten terriers. She also became an advocate for people living with disabilities and testified at a Massachusetts State House hearing on discrimination in disabled health care.
Kennedy was the daughter of Michael L. Kennedy, an attorney and businessman who died in 1997 in a skiing accident at Aspen Mountain in Colorado. Her grandfather, former New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 at a Los Angeles hotel.
Born in July 1984, Kennedy grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts. She graduated from Milton Academy with top honors in Latin and studied history at Georgetown University. She later earned a master’s degree in early education from Pace University and a master’s in education policy and management from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Kennedy taught for two years in New York City public schools through Teach for America, a nonprofit focused on teacher development. Her obituary said she became a strong supporter of more equitable elementary education and charter schooling. She later worked with technology companies aimed at improving school curricula and served as a coach for educators working with young students.
Kennedy’s daughter, Josie, who was the fraternal twin of her son Conor, died a few days after birth. Kennedy is survived by her sons Conor, 12, and Declan, 10; her former husband, Liam; her mother, Victoria; her brother, Michael; and her sister, Rory.
Her death is the latest loss in a family that has experienced several public tragedies. President John F. Kennedy, her great-uncle, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. President Kennedy’s son, John F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, died in a 1999 plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. In 2020, Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter Maeve McKean and her 8-year-old son, Gideon, drowned in Chesapeake Bay after disappearing during a canoe trip. In December, Tatiana Schlossberg, a granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, died at 35 after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia.