The Kennedy family name is synonymous with political power in the US, several generations continue to excel in public service. The first Kennedy to hold a position of power in the government of the United States was Patrick Joseph Kennedy and he was elected to serve as a public official in 1884, and since his ascension to power, there have been more than twenty Kennedys in power with one of them ascending to the position of President. There have been Kennedy members of Congress, Senate and Presidential cabinets. Ted Kennedy is one of the descendants of this family who has worked in the United States government.
Life of Former US Senator Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy was born into a family with eight children making him the ninth child in the brood, his birth occurred on the 22nd of February, 1932. Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald are his parents, but before he was eighteen, he had lost his father and his mother in a plane crash.
Edward,who came to be known as Ted, grew up in affluence as the Kennedys have always been known for their wealth. But he spent a lot of time in his childhood constantly on the move, as the family often relocated. During the course of his childhood, he lived in four different states. Ted’s first school was in London and because of his family’s constant moves he ended up going to ten schools. When it was time for him to go college, in the tradition of his family Ted decided to attend Harvard. But in his second year, he was expelled for cheating, after his expulsion, he joined the army where he spent two years. When his time in the army was done, he returned to Harvard. At Harvard, he was part of the school’s football team where he excelled at the sport but he was not a very good student.
Ted Kennedy’s entry into politics happened with his decision to go to law school and become a public official, which he excelled at. He joined the senate in 1969 as the Senate Majority Whip, a position he held for two years. Like his brother, John who is the only Kennedy to have become president, Ted tried out for the presidency but the Chappaquiddick incident ruined his chances of clinching the position he desired. But he continued to be a part of the senate.
Ted Kennedy devoted more than four decades to working in public office as a democrat; the legislation of many laws in the United States is as a result of the many bills he proposed and litigated to be passed into laws. He is also remembered for his oratory and the power he wielded because of how long he had worked in the senate led to him getting dubbed “The Lion of the Senate”.
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How Did Ted He Die?
Many of the Kennedys came to tragic disastrous ends, either by plane crashes – in the case of Ted’s parents or assassination as was the case of John F. Kennedy, his elder brother. There are many more cases of untimely deaths and calamities that befell the family. These series of fatal problems came to be known as the Kennedy Curse, a phenomenon that even Ted alluded to when he was involved in the Chappaquiddick incident that claimed the life of Mary Jo Kopechne who was the other person in the car when the accident happened. But this idea of a curse has been attacked by some members of the general public; who believe that when you have a high profile family that also happens to be large the occurrence of such high profile disastrous accidents is not unlikely.
However, Ted Kennedy did not die from the “curse”. In 2008, he had received a diagnosis of brain cancer and in August of 2009, he died of the sickness. The senator was 77 years old when he died. His death elicited the public’s sympathy and notable political figures, including the then-president Barack Obama, gave speeches on how much they admired him.
Ted Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery after a 70-mile procession from the compound of the Kennedys.
