He died late last night in his home at Hyannis Point. He was suffering from brain cancer that was first diagnosed in May 2008 after he was rushed to a hospital after a seizure.
I don't normally comment on deaths unless a famous death reminds me of childhood memories. In Kennedy's case, I grew up hearing about Kennedys: The JFK assassination, then the Robert Kennedy assassination five years later, the Ted Kennedy at Chappaquiddick and of course the life and times of Jacquelyn Kennedy after she married Onassis.
He was preceded in death by his 88-year-old sister Eunice who died 11 August.
There is now one remaining Kennedy child still alive from the original Joseph and Rose children, Jeanne Anne Kennedy, mother of William Kennedy Smith who was charged with rape in 1991 (and of course the charges were dropped). I don't think William would be a doctor today if those rape charges had held.
I was no fan of Ted Kennedy but I admired him for his steadfast determination and passion as a Senator to help his people in Massachusetts. I saw him on C-Span a few times and he always spoke eloquently about whatever cause he was pushing, but mostly it was health care. Had he not screwed his life over with that embarrassing Chappaquiddick incident, he very well could have become president. But maybe Ted Kennedy was too divisive of a character to get the conservative front to support his causes.
There aren't too many more people still around that were influential when I was a teenager. The last person I can think of is Fidel Castro. When he croaks on his last cigar it's going to be a long and lonely future for me.
Or maybe not. Maybe I'll be strolling the sandy beaches of western Cuba after Castro dies, celebrating the lifting of the nearly 50-year embargo and travel ban for US citizens.
Wait, there's Clint Eastwood as well. Go ahead, Reaper, make my day.
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