Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver
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Shriver, on a trip to the Middle East in 1964, attracted a following among the children of Jordan. PAUL CONKLIN
Shriver navigates a donkey—carrying himself and his Peace Corps colleagues—through the dusty roads of Nepal. PAUL CONKLIN
Shriver first graced the cover of a major newsmagazine in the summer of 1963. By this point, the Peace Corps was widely seen to be the New Frontier’s signature program.
Shriver and Peace Corps colleagues stop at a mill alongside the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, en route to Pakistan in 1964. PAUL CONKLIN
Shriver greets schoolchildren taught by a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey PAUL CONKLIN
Tragedy—Shriver stands at the North Portico of the White House with Lyndon Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., and an honor guard as they prepare to leave for a memorial service for JFK at Arlington National Cemetery on November 24, 1963. CORBIS
After President Kennedy’s death, LBJ dispatched Shriver to deliver a personal message to Pope Paul, whom Shriver met in Jerusalem on January 5, 1964. PAUL CONKLIN
Several days after meeting Pope Paul, Shriver had an audience with Patriarch Athenagoras, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Together, Shriver and the patriarch gazed upon an image of JFK. PAUL CONKLIN
The Shriver family in the late 1960s, right to left: Sarge, Mark, Maria, Timmy, Anthony, Eunice, and Bobby. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION
Despite occasional political tensions between Sargent Shriver and Robert Kennedy, their families got along well. Here Sarge, Eunice, Ethel Kennedy, and various Shriver and Kennedy children sail off the coast of Hyannis Port. THE ESTATE OF STANLEY TRETICK
Maria, Bobby, and Timmy Shriver with President Johnson in the White House at the swearing-in of their father as director of the War on Poverty. THOMAS PLANT
A memorial service for John F. Kennedy, a year after the president’s death. Right to left: Robert, Ethel, and Bobby Kennedy Jr. and Sargent, Maria, and Eunice Shriver, with other Kennedy and Shriver children. CORBIS
Shriver’s second newsweekly cover, in September 1965, as the War on Poverty celebrated its early successes—and endured its many early problems.
When Shriver was named director of the War on Poverty, LBJ gave him full cabinet status. But for the most part Shriver attended the cabinet meetings only in the early months of the program; after that, he was rarely invited. CORBIS
At this cabinet meeting, Shriver hands out cigars to the president and cabinet members (including Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., brother-in-law Robert Kennedy, and Dean Rusk) to celebrate the birth of his fourth child, Mark Shriver, on March 17, 1964. UPI
Shriver with members of the Job Corps at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey. Despite highly publicized violent incidents at some Job Corps camps, many of the Job Corpsmen revered Shriver, and the program survives today. MORTON R. ENGELBERG
Shriver’s third newsweekly cover. In contrast to the bright tones of the earlier covers, this one had the darker, almost sinister tones of the late 1960s, when the War on Poverty—and much else in American society—seemed to be falling apart.
Between 1964 and 1968, Shriver and President Johnson frequently tussled over funding for the War on Poverty—funding that increasingly was diverted to the war in Vietnam. Here, Johnson subjects Shriver to one of his aggressive charm assaults. CORBIS
Shriver arrived in Paris just as the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam were to begin. Here Shriver appears alongside the chief US negotiators in those talks, Cyrus Vance (left) and Averell Harriman. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION
After being appointed US ambassador to France in 1968, Shriver went toe-to-toe with President Charles de Gaulle—and completely charmed him, helping to thaw Franco-American relations at a crucial moment in history.
SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION
The Shrivers and the de Gaulles became friends and often socialized together. Here Shriver shoots pheasant with de Gaulle. “A present for you, Monsieur le Pres-ident,” Shriver reportedly said as a pheasant he had shot landed a yard from de Gaulle’s feet. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION, JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY
Shriver was an avid tennis player during his time in France. Arthur Ashe was Sarge’s doubles partner regularly and a frequent guest at the residence. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION, JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY
Shriver and Jacqueline Kennedy shared an understanding of the challenges that accompanied life as a Kennedy in-law. They remained close long after President Kennedy’s death, and Maria Shriver (left, next to Sarge) spent several summers with her cousin Caroline Kennedy (right, next to Jackie). CORBIS
The Shrivers’ Paris home was likely the only ambassadorial residence to have tires strewn about the halls—obstacle races challenged not only the Shriver children but also the mentally retarded French children that Eunice brought in. PARIS MATCH
“The Lucky Seventh”—After Missouri senator Thomas Eagleton was dropped from the 1972 Democratic ticket, George McGovern (right) was turned down by five other prospective running mates before successfully recruiting Shriver.
CORBIS
Timberlawn, the sprawling Shriver estate in Rockville, Maryland, served as a bustling, bucolic epicenter of the New Frontier and the Great Society through the 1960s. The site hosted a Neil Diamond concert to benefit the Shriver-McGovern ticket in 1972. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION
At a Democratic presidential debate in November 1975, Shriver sits alongside Washington senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. Carter was the one candidate, Shriver said at the time, that he was sure he could beat. CORBIS
A highlight of Shriver’s time in Paris was the Midnight Mass at Sainte Chappelle that he put together for Christmas 1969—the first Midnight Mass there since Louis XIV had decamped for Versailles. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION, JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY
Shriver walks alongside Coretta Scott King and Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson during a march from Martin Luther King’s crypt to the Georgia capitol, for a rally celebrating the slain civil rights leader’s birthday in January 1980. CORBIS
Although the three brothers-in-law co-existed peacefully within the extended Kennedy clan, at times Ted Kennedy (center) and Steve Smith (left) found themselves politically at odds with Sarge Shriver—often in ways that impeded Shriver’s political career. MELODY MILLER/FRANK TETI COLLECTION
Shriver with President Bill Clinton, who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION
The Shriver kids, from left: Timothy, Bobby, Maria, Anthony, and Mark, at a ball to benefit Best Buddies (the charity Anthony founded) in the fall of 2000. SHRIVER FAMILY COLLECTION
Shriver, age eighty-eight, embraces his son-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger after Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in the fall of 2003. Each man strove in his own way to remain loyal to the large and powerful family into which he had married, but without giving up a certain maverick sensibility and style. CORBIS