..... grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy. He surprised his colleagues two months later when he made a surprise return to Capitol Hill to vote on a Medicare bill. He attended President Obama’s inauguration in January of this year and touched off a scare at the president’s luncheon that followed when he took ill. It was later blamed on exhaustion.

Last September, Kennedy announced he would not return to the Senate until January, but then held videoconferences with his staff and members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which he leads.

The Massachusetts senator’s legislative toiling led to landmark achievements to assist children and the working poor, including health insurance for children, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, abortion clinic access, family leave, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

He was also considered a primary mover on legislation, creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens, and in international affairs, he was a major force pushing for peace in Ireland and a persistent critic of the war in Iraq.

But he didn’t always have a hard-working image.

“Teddy and I are almost exactly the same age, and we came to Washington in the same year, but under vastly different circumstances,” said Roger Wilkins, a retired history professor and former assistant attorney general in Lyndon Johnson’s administration.

It took some time for Kennedy to emerge from the shadows of his older brothers, Jack -- a war hero, congressman and senator, who later went on to become president -- and Bobby, attorney general in Jack’s administration.

“He was a newly elected senator from Massachusetts, filling his brother’s seat," said Wilkins, "and I was an appointee in his brother’s office as a special assistant to the administrator of AID (Agency for International Development).”

"Teddy," Wilkins said, “was generally viewed as lightweight, and he was the baby brother, whereas Jack had been in the service in World War II, Congress, then the Senate.”

“He was just dismissed as a playboy when he first got here, but at some point he really became a committed populist,” Wilkins said.

He said he began to meet Ted Kennedy socially after Bobby Kennedy became the senator from New York and introduced Wilkins, then a Justice Department nominee, to his brother and urged Ted Kennedy to vote for Wilkins’ confirmation.

“By this time, I had risen in the Johnson administration to assistant attorney general. We talked occasionally and he’d run stuff by you ... I would say we’ve reached a point where we’re not buddies, but we are friendly and respect each other a lot,” Wilkins told BlackAmericaWeb.com in an interview earlier this year. “When he ran for the presidency, no one thought he really was committed to it, and he seemed not with his whole heart either.”

By then, his hopes of reaching the White House had been damaged by his behavior a decade earlier in the scandal known as Chappaquiddick.

On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, on Martha's Vineyard, and swam to safety while companion Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in the car. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident; a judge said his actions probably contributed to the young woman's death. He received a suspended sentence and probation.

After Chappaquidick, "he got into health care and just burrowed through it, and he started moving fundamental legislation that made the country a better country. Even with incomplete support for health care, it was still better than what it was before,” said Wilkins.

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Associated Press contributed to this story.

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A great man and a great family, the likes of which we will probably never have again.

by   
Karenm40
August 28, 2009, 6:26 am
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Senator Kennedy will be sorely missed - he gave us everthing he had. Eleanor Holmes Norton said it best: “Ted crossed the aisle and worked his magic with the success that no other member of the Senate or House enjoyed. He and his brothers will live on in my heart forever. Rest In Peace Teddy!

by   
Anitaroundtree
August 27, 2009, 4:22 pm
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And he did this kind of thing throughout his Senate career. I wish more politicians had his strength of conviction.

by   
CAmira
August 27, 2009, 11:37 am
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I heard a Ted Kennedy quote this morning that kind of sums up who he was. I think somebody had asked him about his support for health care, a minimum wage increase, or something equally unpopular to many politicians. His answer was that people needed health care (or the wage increase) more than he needed his job. He was a man who voted his conscience and didn't give a darn if it hurt his re-election prospects. That's the measure of his character. He will be missed.

by   
CAmira
August 27, 2009, 11:34 am
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ted kennedy done alot more than other senators from the senate.he always stood for the poor,disabled,unions, women rights etc.wow, he has been serving for 47 yrs and looked at what he accomplished.yes, kennedys were wealthy but aleast he served the public and looked out for others.R.I.P. Teddy Kennedy.

by   
Quita32
August 27, 2009, 5:52 am
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