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.

Kennedy’s widow Vicki and three generations of the famed clan fought tears as a priest told them that in the Catholic faith “sadness is softened with hope”.

At a graveside enveloped in deepening darkness, Cardinal Theodore E McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, offered sympathies to Kennedy relatives and “an extended family that must probably include most of America”.

Hymns, prayers and sombre music filled the vaulted nave of the basilica, the same church where Kennedy prayed daily when his daughter Kara battled cancer at a nearby hospital.

Tens of thousands of people queued to view his coffin on Thursday and Friday at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library, built on Boston’s Atlantic shore by Edward Kennedy to commemorate his assassinated brother.

Smaller crowds braved driving rain on Saturday to line the route of the cortege carrying the flag-draped coffin from the library to the basilica.

However, heavy security prevented the public from getting closer to the church.

The breadth of national respect for Kennedy was reflected the previous evening in the eclectic mix of guests at a pre-funeral wake held at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library.

Speakers at the wake praised Kennedy as a patriot, legislator, and a man who knew huge privilege but also terrible tragedy.

“Some people born with a famous name live off it. Others enrich names. Teddy enriched his,” Democratic senator Chris Dodd said.

Several senior Republicans who had overcome ideological differences to form a bond with the Senate’s leading liberal also attended. Orrin Hatch, a Republican senator, spoke of his “love” for Kennedy, even if “there are few men with whom I’ve had less in common”.

The Kennedys’ astonishing success in politics, photogenic glamour couples and frequent family tragedies, have led media at times to liken them to a US royal family.

John Kennedy was murdered in 1963 while president and Robert Kennedy was gunned down five years later while running for the White House. Many expected the younger brother to seize the mantle. But his White House hopes were dashed after his name was tainted by scandal, drinking problems and a messy divorce.

He came back as a senator of renowned political skills and determination, earning the admiration of even his critics by the end.

His support of Obama during the presidential election last year was also credited with giving the country’s first African American president a significant boost in his meteoric rise to power.