Ethel Kennedy, 96, has a home in Hyannis Port on the family’s storied estate. The statement did not specify where she fell ill or name the hospital where she is being treated.

Family members called Ethel Kennedy, a mother of 11 children, “a strong woman who lived a remarkably full life.”

“We are here and we are taking care of them,” they added.

The stroke followed an active summer in which Kennedy enjoyed time with her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family members. “She was able to go out on the water, visit the pier and enjoy many family lunches and dinners. It was a gift for all of us and for her too.”

News of her sudden suffering has saddened longtime Kennedy admirers and friends.

Phil Johnston, a family friend, said: “It’s a worrying time.”

“She had a stroke and is resting well, and that’s all I can say,” he said in an interview Tuesday night.

He declined to say whether Kennedy was at her home in Hyannis when she suffered the stroke or where she was treated.

After her husband was assassinated while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, Ethel Kennedy never married again. The couple had a home in Virginia when Robert F. Kennedy served as attorney general in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. He was later elected Senator from New York.

She was committed to human rights and social causes; After her husband’s death, Ethel Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, a nonprofit organization that is now run by her daughter Kerry Kennedy.

Ethel Kennedy continued to spend summers at her home on Cape Cod, the site of so many iconic images of the political era known as Camelot. In recent years she has largely stayed out of the public eye.

But in 2021, she released a rare public statement opposing the release of her husband’s killer from prison. Sirhan Sirhan, which had been recommended by the California Parole Board.

“Our family and our country have suffered an unspeakable loss because of one man’s inhumanity,” she wrote, referring to Sirhan. “We believe in the gentleness that saved his life, but by curbing his violence he should not have the opportunity to terrorize again.”

Six of her children made a similar statement. Governor Gavin Newsom then rejected the parole request.

A year earlier, in 2020, when her grandson Joe Kennedy, then a congressman, was running from Massachusetts for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, she appeared briefly in a campaign video and said, “I hope with all my heart that you vote for.” Joe.” … He reminds me of Bobby and Jack and Teddy,” she said, referring to her late husband and brothers-in-law, President Kennedy and Massachusetts U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Among their 11 children, two sons, David and Michael, died. Several of her children have sought public office. Her son Joseph P. Kennedy II represented Massachusetts’ Eighth Congressional District in Congress. Her daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was elected Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Another son, Christopher, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Illinois.

Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a brief campaign for the Democratic nomination for president before launching an independent bid. He suspended his bid for the presidency in August to support former Republican President Donald Trump.

While several of her children publicly opposed her brother’s presidential candidacy, Ethel Kennedy did not publicly comment on the candidacy.

A 2012 HBO documentary called “Ethel” by Rory Kennedy, the youngest of her eleven children, claims that Bobby Kennedy found the campaign to be in poor taste, but Ethel loved it, and if she hadn’t encouraged him, would have been He may not run for either US Senate or the presidency.

“She was on the front lines, but we hadn’t heard about her own experiences in her own words,” Rory Kennedy told the Globe.

In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Ethel Kennedy the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, one of the nation’s highest honors.

Kathy McCabe can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @GlobeKMcCabe. Tonya Alanez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @talanez.