Jean Kennedy Smith, Last Surviving Sibling Of JFK, Dead At 92

Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy and former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, died Wednesday at 92, according to The New York Times.

Smith was born in Brookline in 1928, the eighth of nine children. She served as ambassador to Ireland for five years under President Bill Clinton and founded an arts education program that supports artists with physical or mental disabilities.

Several of her brothers became national figures — and tragic ones. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy met the same fate in 1968. Her brother Ted was one of the longest-serving members of the U.S. Senate before dying of brain cancer in 2009.

Smith wasn't one for the spotlight, despite her family surname and forays into the national arena.

Her time in Ireland wasn't without controversy, but many credit her with helping bring about peace in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s.

Smith founded Very Special Arts in 1974, a nonprofit that helps disabled people learn the arts. In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work with the disabled.

Smith married Stephen Edward Smith in 1956. Her husband worked in then-Sen. John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign and was campaign manager in the president's 1964 re-election bid.

Smith is survived by four children and six grandchildren.