The Kennedy wife's siblings have been demanding the right to decide what happens to her remains, while the Kennedy clan insist her body should stay with them.
Both sides went to court over fight just hours before a wake at the suburban New York estate where the 52-year-old estranged wife of Robert F Kennedy Jr hanged herself on Wednesday.
Mrs Kennedy, an architect and environmentalist, and her husband had been going through a lengthy, contested divorce when she died.
One of her brothers, Thomas Richardson, filed the legal motion over her body at a court in White Plains on Thursday listing Robert Kennedy as a defendant. Details of the legal dispute were sealed by a judge.
The Kennedys planned a funeral Saturday morning at a Roman Catholic Church in her suburban New York hometown, followed by burial later in the day near the family's seaside compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, her siblings announced they were planning a memorial service in Manhattan, though they did not say when.
But as mourners gathered at the brick mansion in the Bedford estate for her wake Friday evening, one of her brothers-in-law sounded a note of unity.
"She loved everyone and she doesn't want fighting," Douglas Kennedy said.
"She loved for everyone to be together, which is what we're trying to do."
Earlier in the day, Robert Kennedy declined to speak about the legal dispute after emerging from a closed court session in White Plains, saying only: "It's all done."
Lawyers for Mary Kennedy's siblings also declined to comment or did not return phone calls.
The medical examiner's office in Westchester County was told there were court proceedings related to custody of Mary Kennedy's body and waited for a court order before releasing it to a funeral home in Bedford, said county spokeswoman Donna Greene.
Relatives, friends - including Curb Your Enthusiasm creator-star Larry David - and other mourners converged to pay their respects at Friday's wake.
Two police cars were stationed at end of the long driveway, keeping reporters at a distance.
"Everyone loved her. She was part of our family," Douglas Kennedy said as he left the gathering.
"She was the most organised, fun-loving person."
Mrs Kennedy had known the Kennedy dynasty for decades, dating back to a teenage friendship with one of Robert's sisters, Kerry Kennedy. Mary and Robert married in 1994.
But they had been going through divorce proceedings since 2010, and Mrs Kennedy grappled for years with depression and alcohol.
"She struggled so hard, for so long, with mental illness, which so many Americans suffer with," Kerry Kennedy said in brief remarks to reporters Friday outside the church where the funeral was planned.
"She fought with dignity, and in the end, the demons won."
Mrs Kennedy and Robert, the son of assassinated US senator Robert Kennedy and nephew of former president John F Kennedy, had been living in separate homes. They had four children together.
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