HYANNIS PORT, Massachusetts: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in an enduring political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.
Kennedy will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of his brothers former President John F. Kennedy and former Sen. Robert Kennedy on Saturday, a Democrat familiar with the arrangements said on Wednesday. In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, served alongside 10 presidents — his brother John F. Kennedy am-ong them — compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more. In a brief statement to reporters, President Barack Obama eulogized Kennedy as one of the “most accomplished Americans” in history — and a man whose work in Congress helped give millions new opportunities. “Including myself,” added the president. Edward Kennedy’s only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter turned back his challenge for the party’s nomination. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.
To the American public, Kennedy was best known as the last surviving son of America’s most glamorous political family, father figure and, memorably, eulogist of an Irish-American clan plagued again and again by tragedy. But his career was forever marred by an accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969, when a car he was driving plunged off a bridge, killing a young woman.
Kennedy’s death triggered an outpouring of superlatives from Democrats and Republicans as well as foreign leaders. “An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time,” Obama said in a written statement.
“For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts,” said Obama, vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.
Kennedy’s family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.
