Ted Kennedy

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Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009.

A member of the Democratic Party and the Kennedy political family, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the third-longest-continuously-serving senator in United States history.

Kennedy was a brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy—both victims of assassination—and was the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy. After attending Harvard University and receiving his law degree from the University of Virginia, he began his career as an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

Kennedy was 30 years old when he first entered the Senate following a November 1962 special election in Massachusetts to fill the vacant seat previously held by his brother John, who had taken office as the president.

He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was later re-elected seven more times.

The Chappaquiddick incident in 1969 resulted in the death of his automobile passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, as well as physical injuries and mental anguish to Kennedy.

Early life

Kennedy was born on February 22, 1932, at St. Margaret's Hospital in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of the nine children of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, members of prominent Irish American families in Boston. They constituted one of the wealthiest families in the nation after their marriage. His eight siblings were Joseph Jr., John, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, and Jean. His older brother John asked to be the newborn's godfather, a request his parents honored, though they did not agree to his request to name the baby George Washington Kennedy (Ted was born on President George Washington's 200th birthday). They named the boy after their father's assistant.

As a child, Ted was frequently uprooted by his family's moves among Bronxville, New York; Hyannis Port, Massachusetts; Palm Beach, Florida; and the Court of St. James's, in London, England. His formal education started at Gibbs School in Kensington, London. He had attended ten schools by the age of eleven; these disruptions that interfered with his academic success. He was an altar boy at the St. Joseph's Church and was seven when he received his First Communion from Pope Pius XII in the Vatican. He spent sixth and seventh grades at the Fessenden School, where he was a mediocre student, and eighth grade at Cranwell Preparatory School; both schools located in Massachusetts. He was the youngest child and his parents were affectionate toward him, but they also compared him unfavorably with his older brothers.

Between the ages of eight and sixteen, Ted suffered the traumas of his sister Rosemary's failed lobotomy and the deaths of two siblings: Joseph Jr. in World War II and Kathleen in an airplane crash. Ted's affable maternal grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, was the Mayor of Boston, a U.S. Congressman, and an early political and personal influence. Ted spent his four high-school years at Milton Academy, a preparatory school in Milton, Massachusetts, where he received B and C grades. In 1950, he finished 36th in a graduating class of 56. He did well at football there, playing on the varsity in his last two years; the school's headmaster later described his play as "absolutely fearless ... he would have tackled an express train to New York if you asked ... he loved contact sports". Kennedy also played on the tennis team and was in the drama, debate, and glee clubs.

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Family and early career

Kennedy met Joan Bennett at Manhattanville College in October 1957 (early in his second year of law school); they were unveiled after a dedication address for a gymnasium that his family had donated at the school. Bennett, a senior at Manhattanville, had worked as a model and won beauty competitions, but she was new to politics. She became concerned about marrying someone she didn't know well, but Joe Kennedy argued that the wedding should take place. Cardinal Francis Spellman married the pair on November 29, 1958, at St. Joseph's Church in Bronxville, New York, with the reception held at the nearby Siwanoy Country Club. Ted and Joan had three children: Ted (1960–2011), Ted Jr. (b. Patrick (b. 1961) and Patrick (b. (Because 1967). The marriage was in danger by Ted's infidelity and Joan's increasing alcoholism by the 1970s.

In 1959, Kennedy was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. In 1960, his brother John declared his candidacy for President of the United States, while Ted ran his campaign in the Western states. Ted learned to fly and barnstormed around the western states, speaking with delegates and bondeding with them by trying his hand at ski jumping and bronc riding. He spent seven weeks in Wisconsin aiding his brother in the first contested primary of the season, as well as a similar time in Wyoming, when a unanimous vote by that state's delegates moved his brother over the top at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

Following his reelection in the presidential race, John resigned from his position as United States senator following his removal from office. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts was not eligible to fill the vacancy until his thirtieth birthday in 1962. Ted's goal was to remain out west and do something other than run for office right away; "The disadvantage of my position is being constantly compared to two brothers of such remarkable ability." Ted's brothers were not keen on running straight away, but Ted eventually coveted the Senate seat as an honor to match his brothers, even though their father refused to marry them. Folter also begged Massachusetts Governor Foster Furcolo to name Kennedy family friend Ben Smith as the interim senator for John's unexpired term, which he did in December 1960. Ted was given the seat but not before.

Ted began working as an assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, Massachusetts, in February 1961 (for which he received a modest $10.00 paycheck), where he first developed a hard-nosed attitude towards crime. He went on many overseas trips with the intention of improving his foreign policy credentials, which were marketed as fact-finding tours. According to FBI reports from the 1960s, Kennedy met with Lauchlin Currie, a suspected Soviet spy, as well as locals in each country, who were deemed left-wingers and Communist sympathizers. Kennedy was seen renting a brothel and opening up bordellos after hours on tour, according to FBI and other reports. The Latin American trip inspired Kennedy's foreign policy views, and he cautioned that if the United States did not reach out to Communism in a more effective way. Kennedy began speaking to local political clubs and groups.

Kennedy first encountered Edward J. McCormack Jr., the state Attorney General, in a Massachusetts special election in 1962. Kennedy's slogan was "He can do more for Massachusetts," the same one John used in his first run for the office ten years ago. McCormack had the support of many liberals and scholars who believed Kennedy was inexperienced and knew of his demise from Harvard, a fact that later became known during the campaign. "Don't you agree that Teddy is one Kennedy too many," Kennedy said of his brother and another US Attorney General. However, Kennedy proved to be a good street-level campaigner. "The office of United States Senator should be respected, not inherited," McCormack said, not Edward Moore Kennedy, not Edward Moore Kennedy. McCormack's performance was overbearing, and with the family political machine now entirely behind him, Kennedy took the primary by a two-to-one margin in September 1962. Kennedy defeated Republican George Cabot Lodge II, the product of another prominent Massachusetts political family, with 55% of the vote.

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