Jean Kennedy Smith, a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland and the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday night in Manhattan, her daughter said. She was 92.
“She lived an amazing life,” her daughter Kym Smith told NBC News in a statement Thursday.
Kennedy was born on Feb. 20, 1928, in Boston, Massachusetts to Rose and Joseph Kennedy.
She moved to New York City after marrying transportation executive Stephen E. Smith in 1956. They had four children together.
Her siblings included older brother Joseph Kennedy Jr., who was killed during World War II; Kathleen Kennedy, who died in a 1948 plane crash; President Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963 and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1968.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy siblings, died of brain cancer in August 2009, the same month their sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died.
Smith was viewed for much of her life as a quiet Kennedy sister who shunned the spotlight. In her memoir, “The Nine of Us,” published in 2016, she wrote that her childhood seemed “unexceptional” for much of the time.
“It is hard for me to fully comprehend that I was growing up with brothers who eventually occupy the highest offices of our nation, including president of the United States,” she explained. “At the time, they were simply my playmates. They were the source of my amusement and the objects of my admiration.”
Though she never ran for office, she campaigned for her brothers, traveling the country for then-Sen. John F. Kennedy as he sought the presidency in 1960.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
The Associated Press contributed.
