New York ( CNN ) -- Mary Richardson Kennedy was remembered Saturday as a best friend who lived life to the fullest while battling depression . `` She was brilliant and she was beautiful and she cared so very very deeply about everybody around her , '' said longtime friend and sister-in-law Kerry Kennedy . `` She loved her children more than anything else . '' Mary Kennedy , the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , was found dead Wednesday in Bedford , New York , the small town north of New York City where she lived . She died of asphyxiation due to hanging , the Westchester County medical examiner said . Who was Mary Kennedy ? A private memorial service was held Saturday at St. Patrick 's Roman Catholic Church in Bedford . Among those attending were Glenn Close , Chevy Chase , Susan Sarandon and Larry David . Mary , 52 , was buried near Hyannisport , Massachusetts , where the Kennedy family has a compound . She married Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 1994 . The prominent environmental lawyer is the third of 11 children born to Ethel and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy , who was gunned down in 1968 . The assassination was one of a string of tragedies to befall the Kennedy family , America 's royal family in the absence of monarchy . President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 , five years before his younger brother . More than three decades later , in 1999 , John F. Kennedy Jr. ; his wife , Carolyn Bessette Kennedy ; and his sister-in-law , Lauren Bessette , died when a plane he was piloting crashed in the waters off Martha 's Vineyard , Massachusetts . David Kennedy died of a drug overdose in 1984 , and Michael Kennedy was killed in a skiing accident in 1997 . Both were sons of Robert F. Kennedy Sr . The details of the couple 's private life surfaced after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed for divorce in 2010 . After that , Mary Kennedy was charged once with driving while intoxicated and once with driving while impaired by prescription drugs , according to Bedford police . Her family criticized media accounts of her death for what they called `` inaccuracies and misrepresentations '' of her life . Kerry Kennedy talked about Mary 's depression . `` She was battling those demons , '' Kerry Kennedy said . `` She was an angel who was brought to live with us here on Earth . God just brought her back up to heaven and said , 'You do n't have to fight for me anymore . ' ''
Private memorial service for Mary Kennedy was held in Bedford , New York . She was found dead from asphyxiation by hanging on Wednesday . She married Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 1994 ; they were estranged but still married .