Tens of Thousands Pay Final Respects to Kennedy
By VOA News
28 August 2009
Well-wishers overcome with emotion file past Sen. Edward Kennedy＇s coffin at John F. Kennedy Pres. Library and Museum, Boston, 28 Aug, 2009
Tens of thousands of Americans have said goodbye to the late U.S. Senator and liberal icon Edward Kennedy after filing past his flag-draped coffin in Boston, Massachusetts.
Friday was the second and final day for mourners to view the closed casket of the longtime Democratic senator displayed at the library and museum named for his slain older brother, President John. F. Kennedy.
A private memorial service is being held Friday evening with speakers including Vice President Joseph Biden, senators who served with Kennedy, and members of the family.
Kennedy died Tuesday at the age of 77, after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
On Saturday, there will be a funeral mass in Boston with President Barack Obama delivering a eulogy, before the senator is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington.
Although Kennedy, a liberal stalwart, earned the nickname "Lion of the Senate," lawmakers who served with him, and all living former U.S. presidents, have praised the late senator for his ability to reach across party lines to pass health care, civil rights and education legislation.
Three former presidents, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, are expected to attend the funeral.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not be attending the funeral, but wrote in Friday＇s Boston Globe that Kennedy is being mourned as a "great internationalist" who inspired social progress in every country.
Tributes also have come from other world leaders, highlighting Kennedy＇s dedication to human rights and his work to end apartheid in South Africa.
On Thursday, thousands of people lined streets to catch a glimpse of the motorcade that brought the coffin of Senator Kennedy to the museum from his home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod.
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