Who’s who of political elite pay respects

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama, three former presidents and the nation’s elite gathered at a grand Catholic funeral for Edward Kennedy, America’s legendary political patriarch.

A who’s who of the country’s movers and shakers, including much of the US congress, crammed into the pews of the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Obama delivered the eulogy at the Mass, after which Kennedy’s coffin was to be flown to Washington for burial at Arlington National Cemetery, alongside his assassinated brothers John and Robert.