US presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were among the esteemed guests to pay their respects Wednesday at the funeral for Ethel Kennedy, who died aged 96 last week.

The human rights activist was the widow of former US senator Robert "Bobby" Kennedy, with whom she shared 11 children and 18 years of marriage before his assassination in 1968.

"We saw how she picked up Bobby's cause and stamped her own mark on the country," said Biden during his eulogy for the matriarch and pillar of the powerful Kennedy family.

Obama and Clinton both spoke at the service as well, which was held at St Matthews Cathedral in Washington, the same location of the 1963 funeral service for Robert Kennedy's older brother, president John F. Kennedy.

The audience on Wednesday also included celebrities such as musicians Stevie Wonder and Sting.

Former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi also attended the event, marking the first time she crossed paths with Biden since she reportedly lobbied for him to withdraw from the US presidential race three months prior.

Ethel founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization after her husband's death.

Among her 11 children is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran for president in 2024 as an independent candidate before dropping out and endorsing Republican Donald Trump, much to the dismay of his famously Democratic family.

Like other members of the Kennedy family, Ethel's resilience in the face of tragedy inspired many Americans.

In addition to her husband's murder on June 6, 1968 -- and the assassination of her brother-in-law in 1963 -- Ethel lost both of her parents in a plane crash, and two of her sons died unexpectedly, one from an overdose and another in a skiing accident.