Senator Ted Kennedy, known as the Liberal Lion of the Senate, has died after a long battle with brain cancer. He was 77. President Obama had many words of praise for the democratic senator:
"Even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness," Mr. Obama said, "I've profited as president from his encouragement and wisdom."
As Mr. Obama vacationed on Martha's Vineyard, just across the Nantucket sound where Mr. Kennedy died at his home on Cape Cod, aides woke him up with the news shortly after 2 a.m. The president conveyed his condolences in a telephone call to Vicki Kennedy about 2:25 a.m., said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary.
"An important chapter in our history has come to an end," Mr. Obama said in a statement early Wednesday, as world leaders began to express their condolences. "Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time."
The funeral arrangements for Mr. Kennedy have not been announced by his family, but aides said that Mr. Obama is expected to deliver a eulogy for his former Senate colleague, whose encouragement and counsel three years ago helped persuade Mr. Obama to take a long-shot bid for the White House.
"I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague," Mr. Obama said in a statement. "I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the presidency."
Senators, both Republican and Democrat, have been saying on the news this morning that he was one of the few senators that always kept his word, no matter what. If he said he would support a bill or take some action, he never wavered or failed to keep his word.
The New York Times said this in its lengthy obituary:
He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy.
Ted Kennedy kept personal journals for nearly fifty years, beginning with the presidential campaign of his brother, John F. Kennedy. That memoir, entitled True Compass, will be released on September 14, which is earlier than planned. It is available for pre-order at Amazon.com.
