POLITICAL LEADERS across the world have paid tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy, the last surviving brother in the greatest American political dynasty of the last century, who died yesterday morning after a 15-month struggle with brain cancer.
President Barack Obama described Mr Kennedy as one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve in public life.
“For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic wellbeing of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts,” Mr Obama said.
“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.”
Mr Kennedy will be buried on Saturday at Arlington Cemetery, outside Washington, next to his assassinated brothers John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.
Mr Kennedy’s sister, Eunice, died earlier this month, leaving Jean Kennedy Smith, the former ambassador to Ireland, as the sole survivor of the nine children of Joe and Rose Kennedy.
Mr Kennedy’s body will leave the family compound at Hyannis Port today to lie in repose at the John F Kennedy Presidential Museum outside Boston. The museum will be open to the public tomorrow before a private memorial service.
On Saturday, a funeral Mass will be held at Boston’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, from where Mr Kennedy’s body will be taken to Arlington for a private burial.
Mr Kennedy overcame a succession of family tragedies, including the early deaths of his three brothers, a plane crash that broke his back in three places and the affliction of his young son by cancer. His own presidential ambitions were doomed by the controversy surrounding the death in 1969 of Mary Joe Kopechne, a campaign worker who was drowned when a car Mr Kennedy was driving plunged into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island. Mr Kennedy left the scene of the accident, and failed to report Ms Kopechne’s death to the police for 10 hours. He launched an unsuccessful challenge to sitting president Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980.
Elected to the senate in 1962 following his brother’s election as president, Mr Kennedy was the third longest-serving senator in US history, authoring more than 2,500 pieces of legislation. He was an early supporter of Mr Obama during last year’s presidential election.
Last month, Mr Kennedy wrote to Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, calling for the state’s law to be changed to allow for the appointment of a successor for his senate seat before a special election.
“It is vital for this commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and a special election,” he wrote.
Mr Kennedy’s death reduces the Democrats’ senate majority to 59, leaving the party vulnerable to procedural delaying tactics.