The death of Edward Moore Kennedy, scion of a privileged, charismatic and often tragic family, has closed a historic epoch in the United States and opened a void in the political spectrum.
As flags were lowered to half-staff over the U.S. Capitol, where the Massachusetts Democrat served 46 years as a senator, devoted supporters, political opponents and leaders from around the world mourned his death, which came late Tuesday. President Obama, whose White House campaign 18 months ago was lifted by Sen. Kennedy's endorsement, placed his benefactor in the political pantheon, saying that "virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts."
The essence of Sen. Kennedy's political power was crystallized by Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, one of many Republicans who worked with the late senator to forge compromises on bills. Alexander called Sen. Kennedy "at once the most partisan and the most constructive United States senator. He could preach the party line as well as bridge differences better than any Democrat."
Sen. Kennedy's vast liberal legislative record was his own, but his legacy was his family's: a lineage of power, triumph and adversity that produced a president but saw his three elder brothers die in service to their country, two by assassins' bullets.
Sen. Kennedy, who died at 77 from brain cancer at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., will be buried Saturday at Arlington National Cemetery, close to the grave sites of his slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.). The private burial that evening will conclude a three-day memorial that will begin in Massachusetts on Cape Cod.
Sen. Kennedy's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, died two weeks ago, also in Hyannis Port. One sibling, former U.S. ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, survives.
As heir, through tragedy, to his accomplished brothers, Edward Kennedy became the patriarch of his clan and a towering figure in the U.S. Senate to a degree that neither John nor Robert Kennedy had achieved.
He served in the Senate through five of the most dramatic decades in the nation's history, becoming a lawmaker whose achievements, authority and collegiality invited comparisons to Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and other titans. But he was also beset by personal frailties and family misfortunes that became the stuff of tabloid headlines.
For years, many Democrats considered Sen. Kennedy's presidency a virtual inevitability. In 1968, a "Draft Ted" campaign emerged only a few months after Robert Kennedy's death, but Sen. Kennedy demurred, realizing that he was not prepared. His future prospects were diminished one night in 1969, when his car went off a bridge and a young woman drowned.
His reputation besmirched, he failed in his 1980 primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter. But for its rhetoric and drama, his exit from the presidential stage was a high point in U.S. politics. At the Democratic convention that year, he invoked his brothers and asserted: "The cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."
A Path Unlike His Brothers'
Instead of president, Edward Kennedy became a major presence in the Senate, to which he was elected largely on the basis of his name in 1962 and where he wore proudly the label of liberal.
For decades, Sen. Kennedy helped to shape the national debate. Defending the poor and politically disadvantaged, he staked out his party's positions on health care, education, civil rights, campaign finance reform and labor law. He also came to oppose the war in Vietnam, and, from the beginning, was an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq.
Ted Kennedy (1932-2009) 
United States Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts died just before midnight on August 25, 2009, at his home in Hyannis Port at age 77. He was the brother of American President John F. Kennedy and  U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

On May 20, 2008, Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and was released from Massachusetts General Hospital on May 21.

He was born Edward Moore Kennedy on February 22, 1932, in Boston. He had been a senator since 1962.

Kennedy is survived by his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy, three children, two step-children, a sister — Jean Kennedy Smith, many nieces and nephews and several grandchildren.

The Kennedy family released a statement saying, "Edward M. Kennedy — the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply — died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him."

Kennedy was the second-most-senior current member of the Senate, after Democratic President ''pro tempore'' Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and the third-longest-serving senator of all time, behind Byrd and Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Kennedy was known as "The Lion of the Senate," for his long tenure and influence in the Senate. Throughout his career, Kennedy and his staff wrote more then 300 bills that were enacted into law.

Because of Kennedy's death, the Democratic Party has lost their sixty-seat supermajority in the Senate. His successor will be chosen in a special election within 160 days. Prior to his death, Kennedy appealed to Democratic Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts legislature to change state law regarding Senate vacancies, so that a temporary senator could be appointed pending a special election and a vote in favor of a health-care bill would not potentially be lost.  This law had been changed in 2004 to prevent Republican then-Governor Mitt Romney from appointing a replacement for Democratic Senator John Kerry, had he won the 2004 presidential election.