When some objected that defeat and disappointment might be hurtful to the intellectually disabled, Eunice Shriver dismissed the idea as "baloney." Most people, she responded, cry when they lose. Her compassion cannot be called sentimental. But it was more compelling for its lack of sentimentalism. The rigor of her expectations was an affirmation of the dignity and possibility she saw in the intellectually disabled. She did not find disability incompatible with excellence. These are the kinds of high expectations that have helped many of the intellectually disabled into public schools, apartments, jobs and a measure of independence.

Shriver, by all accounts, was among the most talented and driven of the Kennedy siblings -- restless, sharp, impatient, the quarterback at family football games. But the avenues for her ambition were limited by her times. "Politics was not an option," Tim Shriver recalls, "but she still wanted to push for change. So she decided to change society from the bottom up. She was a social entrepreneur before anyone heard of the term."

Precisely because Eunice Shriver, along with her remarkable husband Sargent (the first director of the Peace Corps), often acted outside the partisan realm -- calling Americans to their better selves of citizenship and service -- the couple transcended political divisions better than their contemporaries. Ronald Reagan awarded Eunice Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Generations of public officials, Republican and Democrat, supported and admired her work, which now reaches to 120 nations.

Shriver seemed to have many motivations for this work: her highly developed sense of justice, her Catholic faith, her love for Rosemary. But all these influences led in the same direction. She refused to accept that anyone was hopeless or worthless. She believed that great causes could involve great joy. And she practiced a kind of vigorous love that did not stroke or pity, but rather transformed.

Compared to her brothers, Eunice Shriver's options may have been limited -- but her achievements were not inferior. It is difficult to imagine a higher purpose, or a finer epitaph: She made her nation a more welcoming place.