Tags : Ted Kennedy
Obituary: Edward M. Kennedy
Washington, D.C. (AHN) – Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, youngest brother of the late President John F. Kennedy and the liberal lion of the Senate, died at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts after a battle with brain cancer. He was 77-years-old.
Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May after suffering a seizure. He successfully underwent surgery to remove the tumor early June amid an outpouring of support and well-wishes from Washington colleagues and even conservative critics who had for years used him as a target via the flattery, “a Ted Kennedy liberal.”
Born Edward Moore Kennedy in Boston to prominent Irish-Americans, Kennedy graduated Harvard University in 1956 after a colorful collegiate career marked by football games against rival Yale University, a two-year stint in the Army, and cheating in a Spanish examination that led him to be expelled but later re-admitted. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia and passed the Massachusetts bar in 1959.
Chosen by Time magazine as “America’s 10 Best Senators” in 2006, Kennedy began his Senate career two years after his brother John won the 1960 presidential election. He never lost a re-election to the post and was in his seventh consecutive term when he passed away.
In 1979, Kennedy launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination after years of being wooed by Democrats who wanted him to continue the “Kennedy legacy.” But the murky circumstances of a car crash he was in ten years back -dubbed the Chappaquiddick incident – and the political climate triggered by the Iran hostage crisis secured for incumbent President Jimmy Carter the party nomination. Kennedy, however, effectively won out against Carter with a landmark concession speech during the national convention in New York City.
A strident critic of the Iraq War, Kennedy was known for his untiring advocacy for better healthcare and the rights of immigrants. Among the many social-welfare legislation he sponsored were the 1996 Health Insurance and Portability Act and the 2007 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act.
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