Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party and the prominent Kennedy family, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died. He is ranked fifth in U.S. history for length of continuous service as a senator. Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the father of U.S. representative Patrick J. Kennedy.
"Edward Kennedy" redirects here. For other people, see Ted Kennedy (disambiguation) and Edward Kennedy (disambiguation).
Ted Kennedy
Chris Dodd (acting)
Jim Jeffords
Jim Jeffords
August 25, 2009 (aged 77)
Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, U.S.
1951–1953
After attending Harvard University and earning his law degree from the University of Virginia, Kennedy began his career as an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He won a November 1962 special election in Massachusetts to fill the vacant seat previously held by his brother John, who had taken office as the U.S. president. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was re-elected seven more times. The Chappaquiddick incident in 1969 resulted in the death of his automobile passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. He pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of becoming president. He ran in 1980 in the Democratic primary campaign for president, but lost to the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter.
Kennedy was known for his oratorical skills. His 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 rallying cry for modern American liberalism were among his best-known speeches. He became recognized as "The Lion of the Senate" through his long tenure and influence. Kennedy and his staff wrote more than 300 bills that were enacted into law. Unabashedly liberal, Kennedy championed an interventionist government that emphasized economic and social justice, but he was also known for working with Republicans to find compromises. Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws, including the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act of 1971, the COBRA health insurance provision, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Mental Health Parity Act, the S-CHIP children's health program, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. During the 2000s, he led several unsuccessful immigration reform efforts. Over the course of his Senate career, Kennedy made efforts to enact universal health care, which he called the "cause of my life". By his later years, Kennedy had come to be viewed as a major figure and spokesman for American progressivism.
On August 25, 2009, Kennedy died of a brain tumor (glioblastoma) at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at the age of 77. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Early life
Kennedy was born on February 22, 1932, at St. Margaret's Hospital in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of the nine children of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, members of prominent Irish American families in Boston.[1] They constituted one of the wealthiest families in the nation after their marriage.[2] His eight siblings were Joseph Jr., John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, and Jean. His older brother John asked to be the newborn's godfather, a request his parents honored, though they did not agree to his request to name the baby George Washington Kennedy (Ted was born on President George Washington's 200th birthday). They named the boy after their father's assistant.[3]
As a child, Ted was frequently uprooted by his family's moves among Bronxville, New York; Hyannis Port, Massachusetts; Palm Beach, Florida; and the Court of St. James's, in London, England.[4][5] His formal education started at Gibbs School in Kensington, London.[6] He had attended 10 schools by the age of eleven; these disruptions interfered with his academic success.[7] He was an altar boy at the St. Joseph's Church and was seven when he received his First Communion from Pope Pius XII in the Vatican.[8] He spent sixth and seventh grades at the Fessenden School, where he was a mediocre student,[1] and eighth grade at Cranwell Preparatory School, both in Massachusetts.[4] He was the youngest child and his parents were affectionate toward him, but they also compared him unfavorably with his older brothers.[1]
Between the ages of eight and sixteen, Ted suffered the traumas of his sister Rosemary's failed lobotomy and the deaths of two siblings: Joseph Jr. in an airplane explosion and Kathleen in an airplane crash.[1] Ted's affable maternal grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, was the Mayor of Boston, a U.S. Congressman, and an early political and personal influence.[1] Ted spent his four high-school years at Milton Academy, a preparatory school in Milton, Massachusetts, where he received B and C grades. In 1950, he finished 36th in a graduating class of 56.[9] He did well at football there, playing on the varsity in his last two years; the school's headmaster later described his play as "absolutely fearless ... he would have tackled an express train to New York if you asked ... he loved contact sports".[9] Kennedy also played on the tennis team and was in the drama, debate, and glee clubs.[9]
College, military service, and law school
Like his father and brothers before him, Ted graduated from Harvard College.[10] In his spring semester, he was assigned to the athlete-oriented Winthrop House, where his brothers had also lived.[10] He was an offensive and defensive end on the freshman football team; his play was characterized by his large size and fearless style.[1] In his first semester, Kennedy and his classmates arranged to copy answers from another student during the final examination for a science class.[11] At the end of his second semester in May 1951, Kennedy was anxious about maintaining his eligibility for athletics for the next year,[1] and he had a classmate take his place at a Spanish exam.[12][13] The ruse was discovered and both were expelled for cheating.[12][14] As was standard for serious disciplinary cases, they were told they could apply for readmission within a year or two if they demonstrated good behavior during that time.[12][15]
In June 1951, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army and signed up for an optional four-year term that was shortened to the minimum of two years after his father intervened.[12] Following basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, he requested assignment to Fort Holabird in Maryland for Army Intelligence training, but was dropped without explanation after a few weeks.[12] He went to Camp Gordon in Georgia for training in the Military Police Corps.[12] In June 1952, Kennedy was assigned to the honor guard at SHAPE headquarters in Paris, France.[1][12] His father's political connections ensured that he was not deployed to the ongoing Korean War.[1][16] While stationed in Europe, Kennedy traveled extensively on weekends and climbed the Matterhorn in the Pennine Alps.[17] After 21 months, he was discharged in March 1953 as a private first class.[12][17]
Kennedy re-entered Harvard in the summer of 1953 and improved his study habits.[1] His brother John was a U.S. Senator and the family was attracting more public attention.[18] Ted joined The Owl final club in 1954[19] and was also chosen for the Hasty Pudding Club and the Pi Eta fraternity.[20] Kennedy was on athletic probation during his sophomore year, and he returned as a second-string two-way end for the Crimson football team during his junior year. He barely missed earning his varsity letter.[21] Green Bay Packers head coach Lisle Blackbourn asked him about his interest in playing professional football.[22] Kennedy demurred, saying he had plans to attend law school and "go into another contact sport, politics."[23] In his senior season of 1955, Kennedy started at end for the Harvard football team and worked hard to improve his blocking and tackling to complement his 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), 200 lb (91 kg) size.[17] In the season-ending Harvard-Yale game in the snow at the Yale Bowl on November 19 (which Yale won 21–7), Kennedy caught a pass to score Harvard's only touchdown;[24] the team finished the season with a 3–4–1 record.[25] Academically, Kennedy received mediocre grades for his first three years, improved to a B average for his senior year, and finished barely in the top half of his class.[26] Kennedy graduated from Harvard at age 24 in 1956 with an AB in history and government.[26]
Due to his low grades, Kennedy was not accepted by Harvard Law School.[15] He instead followed his brother Bobby and enrolled in the University of Virginia School of Law in 1956.[1] That acceptance was controversial among faculty and alumni, who judged Kennedy's past cheating episodes to be incompatible with the University of Virginia's honor code; it took a full faculty vote to admit him.[27] Kennedy also attended The Hague Academy of International Law during one summer.[28] At Virginia, Kennedy felt that he had to study "four times as hard and four times as long" as other students to keep up.[29] He received mostly C grades[29] and was in the middle of the class ranking, but won the prestigious William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition.[1][30] He was elected head of the Student Legal Forum and brought many prominent speakers to the campus via his family connections.[31] While there, his questionable automotive practices were curtailed when he was charged with reckless driving and driving without a license.[1] He was officially named as manager of his brother John's 1958 Senate re-election campaign; Ted's ability to connect with ordinary voters on the street helped bring a record-setting victory margin that gave credibility to John's presidential aspirations.[32] Ted graduated from law school in 1959.[31]
United States Senator
First years, brothers' assassinations
Kennedy was sworn into the Senate on November 7, 1962.[48] He maintained a deferential attitude towards the senior Southern members when he first entered the Senate, avoiding publicity and focusing on committee work and local issues.[49][50] He lacked his brother John's sophistication and Robert's intense, sometimes grating drive, but was more affable than either.[49] He was favored by Senator James Eastland, chair of the powerful Judiciary Committee. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, despite his feuds with John and Robert, liked Ted and told close aides that he "had the potential to be the best politician in the whole family."[51]
On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was presiding over the Senate—a task given to junior members—when an aide rushed in to tell him that his brother, President Kennedy, had been shot. His brother Robert soon told him that the President was dead.[39] Ted and his sister Eunice immediately flew to the family home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to give the news to their invalid father, who had had a stroke two years earlier.[39]