END OF AN ERA

JFK’s Last Surviving Sibling, Jean Kennedy Smith, Dies at 92

President Bill Clinton appointed her as ambassador to Ireland in 1993.

Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy, has died at the age of 92, according to the New York Times. Smith was one of nine siblings but outlived most of them by decades. She married the Kennedy family’s financial adviser and future White House chief of staff Stephen Edward Smith in 1956, and, though she never ran for office, often campaigned for her brothers. She was a regular feature on the campaign trail when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy ran for the the presidency in 1960, and accompanied him on a visit to Ireland in 1963. Over three decades on from that trip, she was appointed ambassador to Ireland by President Bill Clinton and, during her time in the role, helped broker the formal agreement to end decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Smith is survived by four children and six grandchildren.