Victoria Kennedy, widow of US Senator Edward Kennedy, wipes a tear as she stands with her son Curran Raclin during a memorial service for the late senator at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on August 28 in Boston.

President Barack Obama, three former presidents and a nation’s elite gathered in the rain Saturday to attend a grand Catholic funeral for Edward Kennedy, America’s legendary political patriarch.

A who’s who of the country’s movers and shakers, including most of the US Congress, filled the pews of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic church in Boston ahead of the Mass, where Obama was to deliver a eulogy.

Meanwhile, Kennedy relatives, led by his widow Vicki, said prayers at the side of the coffin before taking it in a cortege to the church from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library where it had lain in repose for two days.

After the Mass, Kennedy’s body was to be taken to Washington for burial at Arlington National Cemetery, where his assassinated elder brothers John and Robert are buried.

Kennedy died Tuesday, aged 77, after suffering for more than a year from brain cancer.

Although many Americans disliked his leftist politics, the senator’s passing was a national event, signaling the end of a half-century era in which the family dominated the Democratic Party.

Tens of thousands of people queued to view his coffin on Thursday and Friday at the library built by Edward Kennedy in memory of his slain brother, John.

The breadth of that respect was also reflected in the eclectic mix of guests at a pre-funeral wake Friday, including Republicans who had overcome ideological differences to form a bond with the Senate’s leading liberal.

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.

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.”

Heavy security was in place for the funeral. Police shut down streets near the church and a no-fly zone was imposed over the city.

Guests included almost 50 senators and 100 members of Congress, as well as former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and opera great Placido Domingo were to provide music during the Mass, which was presided over by Boston’s archbishop, Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

Once in Washington, a cortege taking Kennedy’s body to Arlington National Cemetery was to halt briefly near the Senate for a prayer.

Obama, who met briefly with Kennedy’s widow Vicki ahead of the funeral, was not planning to attend the burial itself.

The Kennedys’ astonishing success in politics, as well as their frequent misfortunes, lent them a unique status — the equivalent, some say, of 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, popularly known as Teddy, 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 lost the Democratic Party nomination to incumbent Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election.

But 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.

Source: AFP