David Lez depicts Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics, looking like she should have been the President of the United States instead of her brother, JFK.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was one of the nine Kennedy kids of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Her siblings in order are Joseph Patrick, John Fitzgerald, Rose Marie, Kathleen Agnes, Eunice Mary, Patricia Helen, Bobby, Jean Ann, and Ted Kennedy. You may recognize a few names in there but one you may not is Rose Marie. Rose Marie Kennedy, nicknamed “Rosemary,” was born under peculiar circumstances. While giving birth at home, a nurse told mama Rose to “keep her legs closed” which resulted in the baby’s head being stuck in the birth canal for two hours. This lack of oxygen permanently damaged Rosemary's brain, making her mentally disabled. By the time she was a teenager, she was prone to violent outbreaks and seizures and by 23 her father opted for a prefrontal lobotomy. The surgery was a disaster and Rosemary spent the rest of her life in an institution, out of the public eye and away from the promising political careers of her siblings.

Eunice, the moral star of the Kennedy family, was horrified. She “became a passionate champion for people with disabilities” and “persuaded her father to use his fortune to fund research, and after John F. Kennedy was elected president she successfully lobbied him to establish such government entities as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.” She started a camp for people with disabilities at her farm in Maryland called Timberlawn, which was the precursor to the Special Olympics, which has changed the lives of millions of people, as well as altered the perception of people with disabilities throughout the entire world. Eunice was so invested in helping people that obviously whoever she married was going to have charitable pursuits as well. She decided on Sargent Shriver, the founding director of the Peace Corps. The two produced five children, one of them being Maria Shriver, the journalist, author, and wife of California’s governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Along with the honor of being the Terminator’s mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. Her face was put on a coin while she was still alive, the second American and first woman to have the honor. She was knighted by Pope Benedict XVI. She was Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 2008, and most importantly, she is the only person to have a portrait commissioned by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery who has not been either a President or a First Lady. Perhaps the most amazing part about this portrait though is the fact that the artist, David Lenz, has a son with Downs Syndrome who is a participant in the Special Olympics. He was the one who insisted that Special Olympians be included in the painting, after seeing that Shriver wasn’t jonesing for the spotlight. He made his perspective of her a little more subtle, explaining, “If you look carefully, you will see two bright dots — sun dogs — and a pillar of light. When you connect those there is a cross in the sky. It is there as a metaphor for Shriver’s life and work.”