Massachusetts, August 28: Edward Kennedy began his final journey Thursday as America mourned the passing of a political giant whose family has helped shape the nation’s history for half a century.
Kennedy’s coffin, wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, was placed solemnly in a hearse by a uniformed honor guard at his home here as the late Democratic senator’s 55-year-old widow Vicki looked on surrounded by friends and family.
The procession party climbed into a fleet of half-a-dozen black limousines, escorted by a fleet of police motorbikes, as it filed out of the rural seaside resort of Hyannis Port.
Hundreds turned out in the blazing sun to see the procession leave the Kennedy compound on its three-hour journey to Boston, the family’s political fiefdom.
“I just want to wave to Teddy,” cried one neighbor, breaking down in tears as she watched from her front lawn.
People came as they were, wearing shorts and sandals, to watch a piece of history as Americans bid a final farewell to Kennedy during three days of ceremonies that will end Saturday when he is laid to rest near his slain brothers at Arlington National Cemetery.
Children in bathing suits and towels around their necks craned their necks from the porches for a glimpse of the procession as it filed past.
“We’re very aware of the input he had to bring the men of violence around the table,” said Gary McHenry, a 49-year-old dairy farmer from Northern Ireland who was on holiday in Boston, but came to follow the procession from the start.
“He played no small part in bringing Ireland to where it is today. It was probably pivotal. He was a man of peace. As an Irishman with a young family, to live in peaceful times — it’s something we’re very grateful for.”
Relatives and friends in dark suits and glasses had flocked earlier to the Kennedy home for a private mass officiated by Donald MacMillan from Boston College.
It was held in a room overlooking the ocean, a fitting tribute to the 77-year-old senator — a keen sailor who was believed to have been out on the water just days before his death late Tuesday from brain cancer.
Thousands were expected to welcome the motorcade’s arrival in Boston, where mayor Thomas Menino was to ring the bell 47 times at the city’s historic Faneuil Hall, one for each year Kennedy served in the US Senate.
Barricades were erected at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, where the late senator’s body will lie in repose in a closed casket for the public to pay their last respects ahead of a Catholic funeral mass Saturday.
President Barack Obama was to give a eulogy at the mass at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica but will not attend the private burial service later Saturday when the Democratic Party giant is laid to rest on a Virginia hillside overlooking Washington.
Obama, who received a major boost in his White House bid when he won Kennedy’s endorsement, described Kennedy Wendesday as a “singular figure in American history.”
The senator will lie near his brothers — president John F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1963, and senator Robert F. Kennedy, who fell to an assassin’s bullet as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
His death brought together politicians from America’s great political divide as Republican rivals and Democrats alike paid tribute to Kennedy’s relentless campaigning for the causes of peace and social welfare.
“Not everybody agreed with the Kennedys’ politics, but I think everyone appreciated their service and their spirit,” said 74-year-old Nadine Basta, a Kennedy neighbor in Hyannis Port.
Many thought Ted Kennedy destined for the highest office, but his White House hopes were dashed after his name was tainted by scandal, drinking problems and a messy divorce.
In 1969, he drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick in Massachusetts, killing a female companion — Mary Jo Kopechne — and leaving the scene of the accident.
The scandal doused his presidential hopes and he subsequently lost the Democratic party nomination to incumbent Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election.
–Agencies