The family of Senator Edward Kennedy prepared on Thursday to accompany his body on its final journey, as Americans mourned the end of a dynasty that dominated US politics for a generation.
All government buildings lowered the Stars and Stripes to half-mast, as did private homes in the Massachusetts seaside resort of Hyannis Port, where the veteran US senator died late Tuesday at his family compound aged 77.
US President Barack Obama led tributes from across the US political spectrum and around the world, saying “the outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories which we have all witnessed is a testimony to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.”
Family members prepared to begin celebrations of a life touched by tragedy, scandals and ultimately success by escorting his coffin yesterday in a cortege to his home city of Boston following a private mass.
His body was to lie in state at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library ahead of a Catholic funeral mass tomorrow during which Obama will eulogize the lion that roars no more.
Later that day, the Democratic Party giant was to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on a Virginia hillside overlooking Washington, alongside his slain brothers.
The man dubbed the “liberal lion” of the Senate, where he served for 47 years, died after a long battle with brain cancer.
His disappearance ended his family’s half-century-long dominance of the Democratic Party and robbed Obama of a crucial ally in an increasingly uphill battle to reform the US healthcare system.
It was the eldest brother — Joe — that father, millionaire businessman Joseph Kennedy had originally intended for political greatness. But that dream was cut short when he died aged only 29 during a World War II bombing mission.
Many had thought Kennedy destined for the highest office after his brothers were assassinated — first president John F. Kennedy in 1963, then senator Robert F. Kennedy, as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
But personal scandal — and a reputation for drinking and womanizing — got in the way of the youngest Kennedy brother’s White House ambitions, chiefly the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne. The campaign worker was ridding in Kennedy’s car when he drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, and fled the scene of the crash.
Yet in the end, the man who often found himself in the crosshairs of conservatives for championing progressive causes earned the respect of former foes.
More than 100 journalists and ranks of trucks with satellite dishes besieged the sprawling beachfront residence that served as Cape Cod headquarters for the Kennedy clan as strong winds whipped through the moored yachts.
An emotional Ana Lages, a chemical engineer from Cambridge, Massachusetts, placed flowers at the police line.
Kennedy, who long fought for immigrants’ rights, had helped her get a green card 30 years ago, she said, sobbing.
“I’m very grateful to him,” she said.
While not sharing his left-leaning politics, she admired “a man who helped so many people.”
Interrupting his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, just across the Nantucket Sound from Hyannis Port, Obama pledged that “the extraordinary good that he did lives on.”
Kennedy would have been a valuable ally to Obama, who owed his meteoric rise to the White House last year in part to the senator’s stunning endorsement.
He was renowned for his legislative skills and just last year described bringing health coverage to the 47 million uninsured Americans as “the cause of my life.”
But there was also praise from political rivals.
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch lamented the loss of a “treasured friend.”
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