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- Senator Kennedy -- often known as Ted or Teddy -- was the youngest of four sons born to Rose and Joseph Kennedy.
- Their son Joe was killed in World War II.
- Senator Kennedy followed his brothers John and Robert into politics.
- John became president.
- Robert became his attorney general, and later a senator.
- Both were assassinated in the 1960's.
- Edward first won his Senate seat from Massachusetts in 1962.
- Six years later, he showed his gifts as a speaker after a gunman shot Robert.
- "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life;"
- "to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it."
- Robert wanted to become president.
- So did Edward.
- But his political career nearly ended in 1969.
- He drove a car off a low bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts.
- His passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died.
- The senator left and waited hours to go to the police.
- He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and received a suspended sentence.
- Still, he went on to become the third longest serving senator ever.
- He ran for president in 1980.
- The Democrats nominated Jimmy Carter for a second term.
- Other Kennedys today are active in politics and public service.
- Edward's son Patrick is in Congress.
- But for now no one holds national attention the way the senator did.
- It was not always good attention.
- As the New York Times put it, he "struggled for much of his life with his weight, with alcohol and with persistent tales of womanizing."
- But President Obama remembered him as "not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy."
- Edward Kennedy was known as "the liberal lion of the Senate."
- He said his "best vote" was his vote against the Iraq war.
- But he was also willing to compromise with Republicans.
- He fought for civil rights for the disabled and for workers' rights.
- He helped negotiate the Northern Ireland peace agreement in 1998.
- And ten years later, in 2008, he was one of the first top Democrats to support a young senator seeking the party's nomination for president.
- "My friends, I ask you to join in this historic journey to have the courage to choose change."
- "It is time again for a new generation of leadership."
- "It is time now for Barack Obama!"
- Social issues were at the heart of Edward Kennedy's work.
- But he never got to reach one of his goals: health coverage for all Americans.
- His weakening health kept him away from the Senate in his final months.
- But he continued to work from home to help support President Obama's top legislative aim, a health reform plan.