Metro

Kennedy kin, celebs say farewell to Mary Richardson Kennedy

Dan Aykroyd was among the celebs in attendance at today's ceremony.

Dan Aykroyd was among the celebs in attendance at today’s ceremony. (Douglas Healey)

A celebrity-packed crowd said goodbye to Mary Richardson Kennedy this morning at a funeral that drew hundreds of mourners to St. Patrick’s Church in Bedford.

Glenn Close, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and Susan Sarandon were among the bold-faced names to attend the service — three days after the troubled architect hanged herself inside her mansion’s barn.

RFK JR. WINS RIGHTS TO LATE WIFE’S BODY, HOUSE THEY SHARED AFTER HER FAMILY LAUNCHES COURT BATTLE

MOURNERS GATHER AT WAKE FOR MARY RICHARDSON KENNEDY

Mourners also included sister-in-law Kerry Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Joe Kennedy, Larry David, Edward James Olmos, John McEnroe and Andre Balázs.

During the ceremony, Close sang, David spoke and estranged husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivered the eulogy.

“She really fought so hard,” he said. “She had these demons and she didn’t deserve it.”

“The day before she died she called me and said, ‘You know me better than anyone in the world.’ She said, ‘I was such a good girl,’ I said, ‘I know you are and you still are.’”

The somber memorial followed a bitter family feud between RFK Jr. and his dead wife’s family over who would claim the troubled architect’s body.

Most of Mary’s six siblings didn’t attend the service.

Her casket arrived a little after 10 a.m. with a Westchester County Police escort that included two motorcycles and a police car. Kennedy followed the hearse in a black Lincoln Town Car.

Family matriarch Ethel Kennedy, a veteran of such grim family gatherings, rode behind them inside a black SUV.

The wooden casket had no flowers on it and was carried by her children, one of her sisters and the gardener who discovered her body hanging inside the family’s barn.

Kennedy did not carry the coffin inside, where Mary’s body was rested between large vases of white roses and delphiniums. Daughter Kyra read a psalm and son Aiden helped present gifts.

David was visibly shaken during his remembrance.

“She was not haunted by darkness,” he said. “She was the most selfless person I ever met.”

Kerry Kennedy, Mary’s longtime friend, punctuated the somber funeral with hints of laughter — recalling youth camping trips and river rafting when the two were stranded on a sandbar in Colombia.

She said Mary put all her clothes in plastic bags to keep them dry but ended up giving them to pals while she lived with soaking wet clothes.

“She loved the sense of adventure,” Kerry said, adding, “She was beaming the day [her son Finn] got arrested for riding the conveyor belt on the baggage claim.”

When the memorial ended at 12:45 pm, RFK Jr joined sons Conor, Finn and Aiden, and Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy III — his children from a previous marriage.

The Kennedy clan followed the hearse in a bus to their famous Hyannisport, Mass., home.

On Friday, Mary’s family, the Richardsons, fought in court to stop RFK Jr from burying her the heart of Kennedy country.

They hired her divorce lawyer, Patricia Hennessey, to try to convince a judge to let them take control of her body, citing the couple’s years-long separation and hotly contested divorce case, sources said.

A source said the Richardson family also argued they should be entitled to the $4 million mansion where she died.

“Mary’s family wanted the rights to her body, and to the house that she built with Bobby,” the source said.

After a day-long closed-door hearing in Westchester Supreme Court attended by Kennedy, two of his teenage children and Richardson’s sisters and brother, a judge awarded the house and custody of the body to Kennedy.

“Bobby won the rights to the house, to Mary’s body, to have the wake in the house, and to bury Mary in Hyannisport,” a source said of the sealed proceeding.

Kennedy, the Richardsons and their lawyers all declined comment as they left the courthouse. The hearing ended shortly before 4 p.m., and by 4:30, the hearse with Mary Kennedy’s body was leaving the Valhalla medical examiner’s office en route to a funeral home.

A lawyer for the Richardson family, Kerry Lawrence, said her family planned to hold a separate memorial service in Manhattan. He declined further comment.

Richardson’s lawyer brother, Thomas Richardson, had quietly filed the emergency petition on Thursday to get possession of his sister’s body.

The family was upset about how she’d been treated by Kennedy, both during their 16-year marriage and their divorce proceedings.

Mary, who had battled depression and alcohol abuse, had suspected him of cheating on her during their marriage.

And despite his having filed for divorce two years ago, she’d been mortified to see pictures of him stepping out publicly with “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines.

Their divorce case had also gotten nastier in recent months — he’d slapped her with several restraining orders and had her found in contempt of court and had reportedly wrested custody of their four children away from her.

A Richardson family ally said it was “unfair” for Robert to be the one to determine her final resting place.

“He’s the one who abandoned her. It’s insane,” the pal said.

While there was no sign of the Richardsons at the wake on Friday, they did give their niece and nephew hugs after the court proceeding.

Before the funeral, Kerry, choked back tears as she addressed a crowd of reporters.

“Mary suffered from depression and it’s a disease that so many, many, many Americans suffer from,” she said. “I just think about the story of Michael, the arch angel, who had to battle the forces of evil, had to battle Satan who was trying to enter paradise.

“And that’s what Mary did her whole life. She was battling those demons and keeping them out of the paradise that was Mary.”

— Additional reporting by Michael Gartland and AP