A Three-Day Journey Of Remembrances For Sen. Kennedy

By Monica Brady-Myerov (@bradymyerov)
Aug 27, 2009, 8:23 AM
3 Comments

The official mourning of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy begins Thursday with a procession from his home in Hyannisport that culminates in his funeral Saturday with a eulogy from the president.

Interactive Google Map: The Procession Route

Kennedy died Tuesday after battling brain cancer for 15 months.

The body of Sen. Kennedy will be driven in a motorcade accompanied by his family from Cape Cod to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester, where the public is invited to pay their respects as he lies in repose. Kennedy will be celebrated with a memorial service at the museum Friday night.

Kennedy’s funeral mass will be Saturday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston. President Obama will delivery the eulogy.

A church official said former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush also are expected to attend the Mass at the cavernous basilica, built in 1878.

Kennedy prayed there every day in 2003 as his daughter, Kara, was successfully treated for lung cancer at a nearby hospital. The church eventually became a place of hope and optimism for the senator, especially during his yearlong battle with brain cancer before he died Tuesday at age 77.

Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his slain brothers — former President Kennedy and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia. Other family members buried on the famous hillside include former first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and the former president’s baby son, Patrick, who died after two days.

Kennedy is eligible for burial at Arlington because of his service in Congress, as well as his two years in the Army from 1951 to 1953. He was a private first class and served in the military police at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, located at that time in Paris.

On Wednesday night, the Lightship Nantucket — the vessel that marked limits of the dangerous Nantucket Shoals in Massachusetts for more than 150 years — pulled up outside the Kennedy compound as dusk fell and illuminated the late senator’s schooner as a tribute.

Continuing Coverage: Edward M. Kennedy

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Mark S

His life story is all about fighting for the underdog and overcoming challenges that would have deterred most men. It is also about what a difference one person can make. I learned the same thing first hand, interstingly, working on his presidential campaign in 1980. After getting our marching orders in Bangor Maine, in February, we were told we had two choices. The phone banks, or canvassing the streets. Did I say Bangor in February? I headed for the phone banks…only to be intercepted by one of the organizers who immediately recongnized me as having been a canvasser for him just the summer before at now defunct, MASS FAIR SHARE. He said, “I want you on the streets.”
As it turned out, he then drove me another hour north of Bangor…maybe it was Guilford? I canvassed the town all day, Kennedy surprisigly pulled even with Carter, even though he had been way behind before. Eventually I am bussed back to Brandeis where I was a student. The next day in the cafeteria I am reading someone’s New York Times.
Byline…Guilford Maine. Headline “Maine Caucus results show effects of students for Kennedy”…writted by his future biographer, Adam Clymer. I’ll admit my chest might have swelled a bit (then I tossed the paper and only have ever been able to find a reproduction with a Bangor byline, not the little town I canvased.)
So if Senator Kennedy’s and my experience on his campaign means anything…it is what one person can accomplish.
(And keep some memorabilia to prove your case! :) )
Letty Horan

My husband took time out from his job in Weymouth to go to the overpass in Hingham to see Ted’s procession pass under the bridge. He took his crew and paid them too. I can’t go because I committed to the Town Hall at Curry College in Milton tonight with Congressman Lynch. I met Ted when he was 28 years old (I was 12) in my Dad’s newspaper office in a small northern Wisconsin town. He was working as an “advance man” for his brother’s campaign and was seeking my father’s endorsement in the upcoming Wisconsin primary. He sparked quite an interest in politics with me as he was very interactive with children (even before he had any). End of story? I ended up marrying a Boston Irishman, named my firstborn afer Teddy, I worked in politics most of my life–Wisconsin legislature, Boston City Hall (for Fred Langone) and then Kevin White. The Senator and my paths never crossed again but I will surely miss his influence on my adopted state. RIP dear man.
Dale Henry

Having Ted Kennedy as our senator has always made me proud of being from Ma.I was 6 or 7 when I watched JFK drive down Cambridge st. in Boston. I was a student in 1st grade at the Peter Faniuel School on Joy St. My teacher let us walk down to the bottom of the hill to see the candidate for president(She must have been a Democrat).I got right up front and waved to him ,he looked directly at me and waved back. I was a confirmed “Kennedy-ite”. Always and forever. They have always fought the good fight,and it’s with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to the “lion in the senate”