Washington, August 30: In a final eulogy to Edward Kennedy, a sober President Barack Obama told mourners at an overflowing funeral service in Boston yesterday that the man known as the Lion of the Senate – or, he noted, “The Grand Fromage” to his multiple nieces and nephews – had been the “greatest legislator of our time”.
The two-hour mass was the high mark of a three-day celebration of the senator’s life. Later, his body was being flown to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, which 46 years ago received the casket of John F Kennedy from Dallas. Thereafter, it was to be conveyed, first, for a brief and final service on Capitol Hill before being interred at last alongside both his slain siblings in Arlington National Cemetery.
“We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office,” Mr Obama said with three former US president’s looking on. “We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy – not for the sake of ambition or vanity; not for wealth or power; but only for the people and the country he loved.”
–Agencies