Mourners turn out to honor Ted Kennedy
BOSTON — Many of the people who took time out to pay their respects to Sen. Edward Kennedy say they did so because he had made time for them at some point during his 47 years in office.
Korean War veteran Fred Carnes and wife, Norma, were among dozens of residents and tourists waiting outside St. Stephen's Church in Boston's historic North End for Kennedy's funeral procession to pass.
Carnes recalled when Kennedy shook his hand at the city's Korean Veterans Memorial two years ago.
"We were all in uniform, all lined up, and he took time out of his busy schedule to come down to meet us," said Carnes, who lives in Milford.
Carnes said he's a Republican but has always supported Kennedy. "That's probably the legacy of his politics — anything to help the common man," he said.
More than 20,000 people lined up to file past Kennedy's closed casket Thursday. As mourners stood in line for as long as 2½ hours, members of the Kennedy family, including some grandchildren, came out and thanked them for coming.
For 38-year-old Ellen Freed, of Brookline, visiting the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for the viewing was a way to thank the late senator. She has epilepsy and credits Kennedy for her federally assisted housing.
"I live in a HUD building, and if it wasn't for Ted Kennedy, I would be homeless," she said, as she waited in the afternoon for the doors to open. A few hours later the flag-draped casket carrying Kennedy's body was taken into the library for the two-day viewing.
The public event followed a private Mass at the family compound in Hyannis Port, where the senator died of brain cancer this week at age 77. The family watched as the casket was loaded into a hearse for the journey to Boston.
Hyannis Port residents Caron Potts, 45, and her spouse, Mary Canavan, 51, watched the motorcade leave Cape Cod and said they felt a personal connection to the senator, having often seeing him at the beach and chatting with him as they walked their dogs.
The couple described Kennedy, a supporter of gay civil rights and same-sex marriage, as someone down to earth who seemed genuinely interested in their lives — and they said the neighborhood won't be the same without him.
"I think it will be missing the ambience he always presented," Potts said. "I think it will be a somber time period."
The late senator's loved ones — including niece Caroline, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, and son Patrick, a Rhode Island congressman — arrived before noon for the private Mass.
As the motorcade pulled away, Patrick Kennedy sat near tears in the passenger seat of the hearse.
The procession passed many landmarks that were significant to the senator and his family. They included St. Stephen's — where his mother, Rose, was baptized and her funeral Mass celebrated — and the building where he opened his first office as an assistant district attorney and where John Kennedy lived while running for Congress in 1946.
A private memorial service is planned at the presidential library this evening. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Saturday morning at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica — commonly known as the Mission Church — in Boston.
All the living presidents were expected to attend the funeral. President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the eulogy.
Forty-four sitting senators and 10 former senators are expected to be among a group of about 100 dignitaries who will pay their respects at the library shortly before heading to the basilica for the funeral.
Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his slain brothers — John and Robert — at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.
