'God bless Ted, the last was first,' reads condolence sign in Hyannis Port
He will be laid to rest at Arlington this Friday next to his brothers Former president John F Kennedy ,and Robert F Kennedy.
HYANNIS PORT, Mass. - Mourners gathered Thursday at both ends of a 70-mile route that is carrying the body of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from the Cape Cod home where he spent his final days to the presidential library bearing the name of one of his slain brothers.
The late senator's loved ones began arriving shortly before noon for a private Mass at the family compound in Hyannis Port. Among those heading in were his nieces Caroline, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, and Maria Shriver, daughter of his late sister Eunice; and his son Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman.
After the Mass, a motorcade left for Boston. On the way to the library, which Kennedy helped develop, the hearse will pass sites that were significant to the senator.
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The last of the First generation of Kennedy Men has pass on due to a brain tumor. He was a wonderful senator who fought for those who didn’t have a voice. He believe in civil rights for all people. He will truly be miss.
Edward Kennedy, the iconic Democratic U.S. Senator from Massachusetts who raised a strong liberal voice in American politics for the past four decades, died Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass. He was 77.
His family said in a statement. "We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever ... He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it.”
Kennedy – the last surviving brother of a political dynasty that included President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, both struck down by assassin's bullets – had been suffering from a malignant brain tumor first diagnosed in 2008. In January, he was rushed from a post-Inauguration luncheon at the U.S. Capitol after suffering another seizure.
Even with his own share of the setbacks and tragedies that have befallen his legendary family, Kennedy, known as Ted, was an indefatigable leader in the U.S. Senate and elsewhere. The decline in health leading to his death brought a spirited show of support from both sides of the political aisle: Just after Kennedy was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital two years ago, then-President Bush phoned the senator's wife, Victoria Kennedy, to convey the message, "Take care of my friend."
The Kennedy Dynasty
Kennedy was the youngest of nine children of Massachusetts businessman and ruthless political patriarch Joseph Kennedy and his wife Rose. The senator's eldest sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, died Aug. 11. Jean Kennedy Smith, 81, is now the sole surviving member of that generation of Kennedys.
While it was Kennedy's older brother Joseph Jr. (born in 1915, 17 years before Ted) whom his father eyed for the White House, that dream died in 1944, when the plane Joe Jr. was piloting was shot down during World War II. Instead, in 1960, second child John ran for the presidency – and won, bringing a glamorous era to Washington politics symbolized as The New Frontier.
JFK's victory put the entire family in the spotlight. Third son (and seventh child) Robert was appointed his brother's Attorney General, while, in 1962, 30-year-old Ted – a graduate of Harvard and the University of Virginia School of Law – ran for brother John's vacated U.S. Senate seat and handily won the office. He was re-elected in 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006 – making him the body's second-longest serving member and earning him the nickname "The Liberal Lion."
Kennedy promoted environmental, educational and health issues, as well as his home state's historic approval of same-sex marriages. He served on the Judiciary as well as Armed Services Committees, and was a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
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