Mourners, Famous And Unknown, Converge To Pay Final Respects

Published August 29, 2009 Updated January 22, 2010

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(Korri Leigh Crowley for WBUR)

BOSTON — Hundreds of mourners lined the sidewalks of Mission Hill on Saturday morning, watching and waiting for the motorcade that would deliver Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to his funeral.

American flags, old campaign signs and photographs of Kennedy dotted the street and storefronts leading up to Mission Church. Some people held signs urging lawmakers to approve health care legislation in his honor. Others said they just wanted to witness a moment in history.

Lillian Bennett, 59, of Dorchester, said she was a longtime Kennedy supporter and was determined to get as close as possible to the invitation-only funeral, despite the driving rain.

“I said to myself this morning, no matter what the weather, I’m going. I don’t care if I have to swim,” Bennett said. She called Kennedy “irreplaceable.”

The owner of Mike’s Donuts, across the street from the church, said it’s a great honor for Kennedy to be memorialized here, where Sen. Kennedy once prayed mightily for his daughter, Kara, who was diagnosed with lung cancer. She survived.

Joe Bachynsky, 21, a Northeastern junior who lives in an apartment overlooking the church across the street, watched the procession from his roommate’s bedroom. “I am a little bit taken aback to see this outside my window and then look at the TV and see it there,” he said.

“I just kept, kind of, learning more and more people who were going to come, and then I just kept getting more excited.”

Many notable people did come, including President Obama, who delivered the eulogy, three of the four living ex-presidents, foreign dignitaries, Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, singer Tony Bennett and actor Jack Nicholson — prompting what Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis described as the largest security event he’d ever seen in Boston.

The street fell silent upon arrival of the motorcade at the church, formally called the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, just after 10 a.m. Boston Police and the honor guard stood at attention, saluting Sen. Kennedy, who had served in the Army. The extended Kennedy family filed into the church, taking cover under black umbrellas and tight security.

After the Boston funeral, Kennedy’s body was flown to Andrews Air Force Base, which also received JFK’s body after his 1963 assassination. Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on a hillside near his brothers.

WBUR’s Lisa Tobin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Your Comments

Nation Builders – Winners of the Good Fight: Edward / Ted Kennedy joins Shirley Chisholm in rest… after fighting the good fight as the Political- Architects of Change and Modernization in America.

On Friday the 28th & Saturday August 29th many people as well as many of our well known past and present Democratic leaders and others said farewell to our Sen. Ted Kennedy in Boston, another political champion in American-Politics Shirley Chisholm would have been there also, but we can be sure she was watching from above. Now with both Shirley Chisholm and Ted Kennedy gone…. “The dream still lives on”…Sen. Ed. Kennedy (2008 DNC speech).

Ted Kennedy joins Shirley Chisholm as a champion for the cause of the needs people of this country, both have been magnetic, inspirational, tireless and outspoken leaders – dedicated the political renaissance of changing the backward state of the Divided State of America before the transitional times of the 1960’s to the new Progressive/Inclusive era of a United States after the 1960’s. Both overcame many odds to gain national political office during to 1960’s and rose to become the voice of the people in Washington DC by running effective Post 60’s Presidential Campaigns or agenda and both successfully-winning Congressional or Senatorial campaigns during the 60’s, Both of their timelines led America out of the turbulent, divided and deadly and uncivilized 1960’s which created a more progressive era and country for all Americans during the 1970’s (and 80’s). Both embraced a New Philosophies and ideologies for a new era for a Modern America instead of an antiquated America which would not live up to the words of the American Constitution. Equality – Equal Rights, Justice, Human Rights, and Civil Rights belongs to everyone in this country not just the privileged and preferred by class bias, by dominant race/ethnicity or dominant gender. Both Kennedy and Chisholm have fought “the good fight” better than all of their piers. “The Good Fight”…by Shirley Chisholm 1973.

We have a solid Foundation laid by the Political-Architects of Change and the new revolutionary evolution – in general born out of the urban-social and political events of the l950’s and 60’s both Kennedy and Chisholm:
Congresswoman/US Representative Shirley Anita Hill Chisholm, 1924-2005
US Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, 1932-2009

We have been left with the responsibility of being the Architects of the Dreams of the future of this country called the United States of America… with great loss comes great responsibility, an Architectural Responsibility….Joseph C. Edgecombe

Posted by Joseph Edgecombe on August 31, 2009, at 12:10 AM
Just wanted to drop a quick line of thanks to WBUR public radio for providing a live feed to the full funeral of Ted Kennedy, allowing this New Yorker (w/o a TV) to follow the entire proceedings.
The video coverage of the beautiful Basilica and funeral Mass by New England Cable News was thorough and professional.
Many thanks for providing this service so others around the nation could follow this event.

Posted by BJK on August 29, 2009, at 5:17 PM

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