BOSTON (AP) - Edward M. Kennedy is getting a final tribute befitting his huge profile on the American political scene, his life celebrated at a funeral Mass by President Barack Obama, three former presidents and dozens of current and former congressmen.
Kennedy's funeral mass, along with his burial at Arlington Cemetery, will be broadcast live on News 10NBC.
No fewer than seven priests, 11 pallbearers and 29 honorary pallbearers were presiding over the Roman Catholic Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica on a rainy, unseasonably cold day.
Family and friends were joined by political figures in gathering around the 77-year-old senator's flag-draped casket at the Kennedy presidential library for a brief prayer service before his body was to be brought in a motorcade to the church. The prayer is part of
the ritual of a Roman Catholic burial and typically happens at a funeral home before the body is brought to a church for the funeral mass.
Kennedy's flag-draped casket - carried by eight miiltaryservicemen - was wrapped tightly in plastic to guard against the rain as it was removed from the library and put into a hearse. His wife, Victoria, closed her eyes slowly and appeared to choke back tears as she watched under cover of an umbrella.
Joining President Obama, who is giving the Eulogy, and nearly 1,500 other invitees were former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as 58 current members of the U.S. Senate, 21 former members and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, once an aide to Kennedy. The cross-section of those invited included Boston Celtics great Bill Russell and actor Jack Nicholson.
A military honor guard has stood by Kennedy's casket since it arrived at his brother's presidential library Thursday. A rotation of friends, former staffers and others Kennedy touched - including the parents of a murdered lifeguard, the family of an Iraq war soldier and the widow of a Sept. 11 terror victim - has maintained a 24-hour vigil.
On Friday, Kennedy was remembered at a bipartisan memorial service whose speakers included Sens. John McCain and John Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, JFK's daughter.
The invitation-only funeral audience of world leaders and commoners alike evoked the funerals for Kennedy's brothers. It was at RFK's rites in 1968 that the senator not only emerged as family patriarch, but also the person to deliver the final word on lives
cut short.
Kennedy will be buried in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia alongside his brothers.
