WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers who profoundly reshaped American politics over the past half-century, died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannisport, Mass.
He was one of history's most towering senators, a skilled lawmaker who crafted scores of statutes that helped how children learn, how doctors treat the sick and how workers are paid and protected.
“He was the Henry Clay of the 20th Century. He got the job done,” said Thomas Whelan, associate professor of social science at Boston University, citing the “Great Compromiser” of the mid-19th Century.
He was 77 years old and had been battling brain cancer for more than a year.
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Kennedy's life was in many ways the story of American politics over two generations.
He was the youngest child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, last in line behind brothers groomed for the presidency. He lacked the polished charm of his brother John, who won the presidency in 1960, or the grit and fire of brother Bobby, who pursued the White House in 1968.
He virtually inherited John’s Senate seat upon turning 30 in 1962, and he rose fast. His first Senate speech announced his passionate support of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and he was instrumental in pushing an overhaul of immigration law through the chamber a year later.
When Robert was assassinated in 1968, Ted became the heir to the family legacy. In January 1969, he upset veteran Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana to become majority whip, the Senate’s second-ranking position. The close vote was a statement by the party’s liberal wing that Kennedy, who’d opposed the Vietnam War since 1967, was its undisputed leader and the frontrunner to challenge Richard Nixon for the presidency in 1972.
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That scenario was shattered shortly after midnight on July 19, 1969, when the car he was driving sailed off a bridge and sank in a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
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