One of America's best known senators, Edward Moore (Ted) Kennedy, 77, died on Aug. 25, 2009. Kennedy first entered the Senate as a Massachusetts Democrat in 1962. He was re-elected seven times, earning the title "Lion of the Senate" after becoming an outspoken public servant on issues of poverty and health care--often crossing party lines to work with his contemporaries. But his family name came with political expectation--he first entered the Senate when brother John headed to the Oval Office, leaving the Massachusetts seat empty. It was a tragic decade; both John and brother Robert were assassinated, and Ted was the driver in a car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne. Despite this, Kennedy remained a strong leader in the Democrat Party; even after he was diagnosed with brain cancer in early 2008, he took a break from recovery to usher in a new generation of Democrats at the 2008 national convention in Denver. As the last son of family patriarch Joseph Kennedy, Ted's appearance was a symbol of a passing of party leadership to a new generation.
