Key figures: Edward “Ted” Kennedy (US Senator for Massachusetts), Barack Obama (US President), Paul Kirk (interim successor), Scott Brown (special-election winner)
Summary
Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy, the long-serving United States Senator from Massachusetts and patriarch of the Kennedy political family, died at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on August 25, 2009, at the age of 77. He had been diagnosed with a malignant glioma — a form of brain cancer — in May 2008. One of the longest-serving senators in American history, Kennedy had represented Massachusetts continuously since 1962 and was widely known as the “Lion of the Senate” for his legislative influence. His death removed a central figure of postwar American liberalism and, by altering the balance of the Senate, affected the passage of the health-care reform he had called “the cause of my life.”
Background
Kennedy was the youngest of the nine children of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy and the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s. Born February 22, 1932, he won a 1962 special election to the Senate seat his brother John had vacated to become president and was sworn in that November. Over the following decades he became one of the most productive legislators of his era, with his office associated with the enactment of more than 300 laws. His career was shadowed by the July 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, in which a car he was driving went off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne drowned; Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and the episode weighed on his subsequent presidential ambitions. He mounted an unsuccessful challenge to incumbent President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic nomination, closing his convention address with the line, “the dream shall never die.”
Illness and Death
In May 2008, after suffering a seizure, Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant glioma of the brain. He underwent surgery and subsequent chemotherapy and radiation but continued limited public activity, including a dramatic appearance to endorse Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. He died on the evening of August 25, 2009, at his Hyannis Port home, surrounded by family.
Funeral and Burial
A funeral Mass was held on August 29, 2009, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (the Mission Church) in Boston, attended by former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter and by senators of both parties. President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy, describing Kennedy as “the soul of the Democratic Party” and “the lion of the U.S. Senate.” Kennedy was buried that evening at Arlington National Cemetery, near the graves of his brothers John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.
Political Aftermath
Kennedy’s death created a vacancy in a closely divided Senate at a pivotal moment for the Obama administration’s health-care legislation. Massachusetts Democrats moved to keep the seat filled: former Democratic National Committee chairman Paul Kirk was appointed interim senator in September 2009. In the special election held on January 19, 2010, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley. Brown’s victory gave Republicans a 41st seat and ended the Democrats’ 60-vote, filibuster-proof supermajority. Unable to advance an amended bill past a potential filibuster, congressional Democrats instead had the House adopt the Senate-passed bill with changes made through budget reconciliation — the route by which the Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010.
Significance
Ted Kennedy’s nearly 47-year Senate tenure made him one of the longest-serving senators in United States history and a leading architect of late-twentieth-century liberal legislation on immigration, civil rights, health care, education, and disability rights. His death marked the close of an era for the Kennedy family’s direct presence in national politics and reshaped the legislative landscape at the moment of the health-care debate he had long championed.
Sources
- Ted Kennedy — Wikipedia
- Funeral of Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy — Barack Obama Presidential Library
- Understanding Sen. Kennedy’s Cancer Diagnosis — NPR
- 2010 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts — Wikipedia