The Kennedy family held its annual Independence Day reunion at the clan’s compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, marking the first gathering since family matriarch Ethel Kennedy died in October 2024 at the age of 96. Scores of relatives spanning multiple generations assembled on 4–5 July for the traditional family photograph and lawn celebration overlooking Nantucket Sound. Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy’s 11 children, posted video footage of the event on 5 July showing dozens of relatives cheering as a photographer called out birthday wishes. The shout-outs were directed at Chris Kennedy, who turned 62 on Independence Day, and former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who celebrated her 74th birthday during the weekend. In a separate social-media tribute, Kerry Kennedy recalled her mother’s custom of leading the local Fourth of July parade in a red-white-and-blue golf cart and highlighted Ethel Kennedy’s longtime advocacy work, including a 24-hour hunger strike in 2018 to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policy. The reunion underscores both the continuity of the Kennedy family’s public traditions and the end of an era without the presence of its recently departed matriarch.