Ted Kennedy (1932–2009,) fully Edward Moore Kennedy, was an American politician. A U.S. senator from Massachusetts 1962–2009, he was one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history. He was a preeminent influence in the passage of much social reform legislation.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Joseph Kennedy and brother of President John F Kennedy and Senator Robert F Kennedy, Ted Kennedy was educated at Harvard and Virginia University Law School and admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1959. He was elected as a Democratic senator to fill John F Kennedy’s old Massachusetts seat in 1962.
In 1969, Kennedy became the youngest-ever Majority Whip in the U.S. senate. He was involved in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island in which he left a young campaign worker, Mary Jo Kopechne, to drown. That episode dogged his consequent political career and hindered him from achieving his “biggest dream,” the presidency of the U.S.
Kennedy was one of the most influential members of the Senate for almost five decades. He focused on issues such as health care and was a prominent advocate for the working class and middle class.
American journalist William H Honan wrote Ted Kennedy: Portrait of a Survivor (1972.) The drama film Chappaquiddick (2017) details the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident and the Kennedy family’s response.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ted Kennedy
If you persevere, stick with it, work at it, you have a real opportunity to achieve. If you do your best and keep a true compass, you’ll get there.
—Ted Kennedy
Topics: Perseverance
The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.
—Ted Kennedy
Topics: Work
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