Kennedy honored for public service

Family, friends celebrate senator's life

— Sen. Edward Kennedy was remembered as a bighearted man with a passion for public service and helping other people at a memorial service at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Kennedy, who died Tuesday at 77, was recalled as a public servant, a sailor, a statesman, a raconteur and a generous family man. His nephew, former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, recalled how he had stepped in as surrogate father for the children of his slain brothers.

Kennedy had time after his diagnosis with a fatal form of brain cancer in May of last year to help plan Friday's send-off. The speakers and guests reflected his rich and varied life: family and friends, staff and constituents, local pols, and national statesmen.

The service, formally called A Celebration of Life, bore many of the hallmarks of an Irish wake: prayer and song, robust laughter, and quiet tears. The memorial took place in the same stark, maple-paneled room where thousands of mourners came to view Kennedy's coffin Thursday and Friday.

His funeral will be held today at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston. President Barack Obama, vacationing this week on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, is scheduled to speak.

Among the speakers Friday were senators of both political parties, longtime Kennedy family advisers and his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who said traveling in the motorcade reminded her of the family history trips her Uncle Teddy would organize for her and her cousins when they were children.

"Now Teddy has become a part of history, and we are the ones who will have to do all the things he would have done, for us, for each other and for our country," Schlossberg said.

The invocation was delivered by the Rev. Gerry Creedon, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington, Va., a counselor to Kennedy for more than 30 years.

One of Kennedy's closest personal and political friends,Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, shared what he believed was the secret of Kennedy's success as a lawmaker in his nearly 47 years in the Senate.

"People liked him," Dodd said.

"Teddy was a man who lived for others," Dodd said. "He was a champion for countless people who otherwise might not have had one, and he never quit on them, never gave up on the belief that we could make tomorrow a better day. Never."

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona called Kennedy "the best ally you could have" when they agreed on issues, and Sen.Orrin Hatch, another GOP colleague, said he'd battled like a brother with Kennedy for 33 years and "loved every minute of it."

Among the several hundred in attendance were former Vice President Walter Mondale; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif.; former Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, of North Carolina; Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court, a former Kennedy aide; and Lauren Bacall, the actress.

The private memorial, which was nationally televised, came hours after officials ended the two-day public viewing of the flag-draped coffin at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that an estimated 50,000 attended.

Information for this article was contributed by John M. Broder, Abby Goodnough, Matt Collette and Liz Robbins of The New York Times; by Tom Moroney Brian K. Sullivan and Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam of Bloomberg News; and by Bob Salsberg, Denise Lavoie and Glen Johnson of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 08/29/2009

Upcoming Events