Ted Kennedy

He was the ninth child, born at St. Margaret's Hospital in Dorchester on George Washington's 200th birthday. His brother John asked to be godfather and to name him George Washington Kennedy — the parents granted the first request and refused the second. He had passed through 10 schools by the age of 11, and between eight and 16 he absorbed his sister Rosemary's failed lobotomy and the deaths of Joseph Jr. and Kathleen in separate plane crashes. His parents were affectionate with him and compared him unfavorably with his brothers. At Harvard, anxious about staying eligible for athletics, he sent a classmate to take a Spanish exam in his place in May 1951. Both were expelled. He enlisted, drew the honor guard at SHAPE in Paris, came back and finished.

Massachusetts sent him to his brother's old Senate seat in a special election in 1962, the year he turned 30 and became eligible, over an opponent who said in debate that if his name were Edward Moore the candidacy would be a joke. He stayed 47 years, the fifth-longest continuous service in Senate history. He and his staff wrote more than 300 bills that became law — the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act, COBRA, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, mental health parity, S-CHIP, No Child Left Behind. He was one of 23 senators to vote against the Iraq War Resolution in October 2002. Universal health care he called the cause of his life, and never got it.

On the night of July 18, 1969 he drove off the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, which had no guardrail, into a tidal channel called Poucha Pond. He got out. Mary Jo Kopechne, 28, did not. By his own account he dove seven times trying to reach her, then swam to shore, and he told no one in authority until the next morning, by which time her body had been found. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. Twenty-two years later he took his son and his nephew out drinking in Palm Beach on Easter weekend, and the nephew, William Kennedy Smith, was tried for rape and acquitted. That October Kennedy stood up at Harvard and said he recognized his own shortcomings, the faults in the conduct of his private life.

A seizure on May 17, 2008 turned out to be a malignant glioma. He had endorsed Barack Obama that January, taking a commitment on health care in exchange, and on June 2 had brain surgery at Duke while conscious, to spare the neurology. He died at Hyannis Port on August 25, 2009 and was buried at Arlington near his brothers, under a white oak cross identical to Robert's. True Compass appeared three weeks later and went straight to the top of the bestseller list. In January 2010 a Republican won his seat and broke the Democratic supermajority. The health care bill passed anyway that March, and his son left a note on the grave saying the unfinished business was done.

Ted Kennedy's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 law
  Ended the national-origins quota system 1965
• The dream shall never die speech
  His concession address to the Democratic convention on August 12, 1980 1980
• Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act law
  Sanctions on South Africa, passed over a presidential veto 1986
• Americans with Disabilities Act law
  His son Edward Jr. had lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973 1990
• State Children's Health Insurance Program law
  Health coverage for children above Medicaid and below insurance 1997
• True Compass book
  Written through his illness and published three weeks after his death 2009

• May 1951 aged 19 Expelled from Harvard for sending a classmate to sit his Spanish exam He enlisted in the Army the following month.
• June 1952 aged 20 Posted to the honor guard at SHAPE headquarters in Paris His father's connections kept him out of Korea.
• 1962 aged ~30 Wins a special election to the Senate seat his brother had held His primary opponent said the office should be merited, not inherited.
• June 19, 1964 aged 32 Survives a plane crash in a Southampton apple orchard The pilot and his aide Edward Moss died. Kennedy had chronic back pain for the rest of his life.
• July 18, 1969 aged 37 Drives off the Dike Bridge at Chappaquiddick. Mary Jo Kopechne drowns He reported it the next morning, after her body had been found.
• August 12, 1980 aged 48 Concedes the nomination to Jimmy Carter and gives the speech anyway He had won 10 primaries to Carter's 24.
• 1990 aged ~58 The Americans with Disabilities Act becomes law
• January 28, 2008 aged 75 Endorses Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton In return he secured a promise that universal health care would come first.
• August 25, 2009 aged 77 Dies at Hyannis Port, 15 months after the diagnosis

• Jimmy Carter 1924–2024
  39th president who emphasized human rights, brokered the Camp David Accords, and built a major post-presidential humanitarian legacy. challenged
• Barack Obama b. 1961
  44th President and first African American to hold the office, known for the Affordable Care Act. endorsed
• George W. Bush b. 1946
  43rd president who led the country after the September 11 attacks and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. legislative partner across the aisle
• John McCain 1936–2018
  Senator and war hero whose bipartisan spirit and military service defined his political career. immigration ally
• Ronald Reagan 1911–2004
  40th president whose conservative domestic program and assertive Cold War strategy reshaped American politics. opposed
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929–1994
  First Lady who restored the White House as a museum and shaped the public memory of her husband's presidency. sister-in-law