U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy – the liberal lion of the Senate and head of the famed Kennedy family – died late Tuesday night, August 26, after more than a yearlong battle with brain cancer. Kennedy died at his family home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
Kennedy, 77, represented Massachusetts in the Senate for 47 years beginning in 1962, when he replaced his brother John F. Kennedy Jr. after he was elected U.S. President in 1960.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama, who was vacationing with his family in Martha’s Vineyard, addressed the country and said that an important chapter in the nation’s history had 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.
Edward Kennedy, who often went by the nickname Ted, was the younger brother of former President John F. Kennedy Jr. and New York Senator Robert Kennedy, who were both assassinated while they were in their 40s. Ed Kennedy became Massachusetts’ Senator when he was 30.
During his career, which had its shares of highs and lows both politically and in his personal life, Kennedy was a strong advocate for health care, education, civil rights, immigration reform and raising the minimum wage. He authored more than 2,500 bills while in the Senate and several hundred became public law.
In New York, friends and colleagues paid tribute to Kennedy for his work during the past five decades in the Senate. New York Senator Chuck Schumer called him a mentor, guiding light and close friend.
“In the Senate, Ted Kennedy was our sun – the center of our universe,” Schumer said. “To be pulled by his strong gravitational field, to bask in his warmth was a privilege, an honor, and, for many of us, even a life changing experience. His death leaves our world dark but, as he said in his own words, ‘the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.’ Ted, we will not let your flag fall.”
Queens Congressmember Joseph Crowley, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee and also is the head of the Queens County Democratic Organization, said Kennedy’s death leaves a tremendous void politically in America.
“I think he will always stand out for me as someone who cared tremendously about the disadvantaged in our country and really focused on education and health care,” Crowley told The Courier, on Wednesday.
Although Kennedy’s health had deteriorated significantly before talks of national health care reform intensified this year, Crowley said that he certainly contributed from afar to the debate.
“I wouldn’t be surprised in the end when a health care bill is passed, it is done in his name and his honor as well,” Crowley said.
Kennedy graduated from Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School. He is survived by his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy and their five children Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin.
