Kyle Francis Kennedy, the granddaughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, dies at 42
Oct 20, 2026, 2:35 PM
BOSTON (AP) — Kyle Francis Kennedy, the granddaughter of assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel Kennedy, has died. She was 42.
An advocate for education reform and disability rights, Kennedy lived most of her life in Massachusetts. She died on Sept. 21, according to the town clerk in Westwood, Massachusetts, where she lived, and an obituary published by a funeral home. A cause of death wasn’t immediately announced.
After college, Kennedy joined Teach for America where she worked as a teacher in New York City, according to an obituary written by her family, and later became an education advocate who worked with technology companies focused on improving school curricula.
She was the niece of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy was a long-distance runner and ran the Boston Marathon in 2019, but a year later, she suffered a severe spinal cord injury that resulted in long-term paralysis, according to her family. She became an advocate for people with disabilities, including testifying before the Massachusetts legislature in a hearing on discrimination in health care for people with disabilities.
RFK’s family, like the rest of the Kennedy clan, is no stranger to tragedy.
Kyle Kennedy’s father, Michael Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident in Colorado on New Year’s Eve 1997 at age 39.
Her grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. He had served as attorney general in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.
