By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Sen. Edward “Ted” Moore Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass. at the age of 77.
Known as the “liberal lion of the Senate,” he died after battling brain cancer for more than a year. He was diagnosed in May of 2008 and underwent successful brain surgery soon after but his health continued to deteriorate. He suffered a seizure while attending the luncheon following President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
“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,” said the Kennedy family said in a statement “He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it.”
Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy brothers, was born in Brookline Massachusetts on Feb. 22, 1932, the ninth and youngest child of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He grew up mostly in the New York City suburb of Bronxville, N.Y. and attended private boarding schools. He was expelled from Harvard during his freshman year after asking a friend to take an exam for him.
After serving in the Army for two years, he returned to earn degrees at Harvard and then the University of Virginia law school. He married Virginia Joan Bennett in 1958. They had three children – Teddy Jr., Kara and Patrick.
Tragedy was a regular part of his life. By the time he reached adulthood, he had already lost his eldest brother Joe Jr. in World War II and his sister Kathleen died in a plane crash. Another sister, Rosemary, who was mildly retarded, had to be institutionalized following a botched lobotomy. In the 1960’s, two of his brothers were assassinated.
He was elected to the Senate in 1962 but seven years later, in July of1969, following a party on Martha’s Vineyard, he drove off a bridge on the tiny Massachusetts island of Chappaquiddick. The car plunged into the water. Kennedy escaped, but his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, did not.
Questions swirled around the relationship between the two and what Kennedy had done in the hours after the accident. He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for leaving the scene of an accident for which he received a two-month suspended sentence and lost his drivers license for a year.
His career in the Senate would span four decades, but the accident at Chappaquiddick destroyed his presidential hopes. During his long career in the Senate, he championed health care reform, working wages and equal rights. Although hailing from a Catholic family, he did not uphold Church teaching in his political life and was a well-known supporter of abortion and gay rights, among others.
In August, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — by President Obama. His daughter, Kara Kennedy, accepted the award on his behalf.
“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 President Barack Obama in a statement released today. “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.”
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