Jean Kennedy Smith, former ambassador and sister of JFK, dies at 92

Jean Kennedy Smith, the former ambassador to Ireland and sister to President John F. Kennedy, died Wednesday, according to The New York Times. She was 92.

Breaking News: Jean Kennedy Smith, a sister of the Kennedy clan who helped forge peace in Northern Ireland as an ambassador in the 1990s, died at 92 https://t.co/tdV1PnOwPi
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 18, 2020

Smith’s daughter, Kym, confirmed her death to the Times on Thursday. She said Smith died at her home in Manhattan.

Born in Boston on Feb. 20, 1928, Smith was the second youngest and last-surviving of the nine children born to Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy. Her siblings included older brother Joseph Kennedy Jr., killed in action during World War II; Kathleen “Kick’ Kennedy, who died in a 1948 plane crash; the president, assassinated in 1963 and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, slain 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.

A philanthropist and diplomat, Smith never ran for office. Her first foray into national politics came in 1960, when she traveled the United States to campaign for her brother, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy, during his presidential run.

In 1963, she stepped in for a traveling Jacqueline Kennedy and co-hosted a state dinner for Ireland’s president. The same year, she accompanied her brother — the first Irish Catholic president — on his famous visit to Ireland. Their great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, was from Dunganstown in County Wexford in southeastern Ireland.

Decades later, in 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Smith to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, calling her “as Irish as an American can be.” As ambassador, she played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland peace process. She held the position until 1998.

Her work as ambassador and her work to help children with disabilities prompted President Barack Obama to award her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010.

Smith was married to former transportation executive and Kennedy family financial advisor Stephen Smith, who died in 1990. They had four children together: Stephen Jr., William, Amanda and Kym.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.