Eunice Kennedy Shriver hospitalized on the Cape

By Globe Staff

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics and a member of the Bay State's storied Kennedy clan, is in intensive care at Cape Cod Hospital, according to a statement issued by the family.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

She is in critical but stable condition, the statement said, and her entire family is with her, including her husband, all of her children, and her grandchildren.

No more information is being released at this time on her diagnosis.

The sister of US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the late US Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the late President John F. Kennedy, the 88-year-old Shriver has been hospitalized several times in the past decade for illnesses and broken bones.

Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968. Her husband, Sargent Shriver, was the first director of the Peace Corps, a US ambassador to France, and a vice presidential candidate. The couple's daughter, broadcaster Maria Shriver, is the wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was also at the hospital, a source close to the family said.

In 1984, Ronald Reagan presented Eunice Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts with the developmentally disabled.