Washington, August 27: US President Barack Obama will eulogize Senator Edward Kennedy at his funeral in a Boston basilica, before his eventual burial alongside his slain brothers at Arlington National Cemetery.
A Democratic official familiar with the plans confirmed Wednesday that the liberal icon’s body would be taken from his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts to the John F. Kennedy presidential library and museum in Boston.
A funeral for the Democratic icon, who died, aged 77, late Tuesday, will then take place in the huge Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston. Obama will attend and make remarks, the official said.
Kennedy used to pray at the church daily, as his daughter Kara fought a successful battle against cancer.
The late senator’s body will then be interred next to assassinated brothers former president John Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington.
Dates and times of the various ceremonies were still being decided by Kennedy’s family, the official said.
Another US official earlier said Kennedy was eligible for an “interment” (ground burial) in Arlington because he served in the US army in the 1950s and held elective office with the US government.
Arlington Cemetery, which is dotted with countless white crosses marking the resting places of the fallen, is reserved for former military or historic figures, soldiers, US presidents and Supreme Court justices.
More than 300,000 people are buried there.
–Agencies