Aug 28, 2009 7:24 am US/Eastern
Thousands Mourn Kennedy At JFK Library
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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A woman carries a folded US flag as she views the casket of Sen. Edward Kennedy in the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
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Victoria Kennedy (L), Sen. Edward Kennedy's widow, and his nephew Joe Kennedy (2nd L) greet mourners Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.
Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
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Thousands of people lined up to pay their respects to the senator.
CBS
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A woman cries as the motorcade passes Faneuil Hall.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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A military honor guard carries Sen. Ted Kennedy's casket into a hearse outside his Hyannis Port home.
CBS
Tens of thousands of mourners are paying their respects to Sen. Edward Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum on Columbia Point.
At one point Thursday night, the wait to get in was 3-and-a-half hours long, according to the senator's office.
Visiting hours were scheduled to continue until 11 p.m., but the doors remained open until 2 a.m.
They will re-open at 8 a.m. Friday.
Kennedy's widow Vicki greeted well-wishers filing past the casket Thursday.
She told WBZ the outpouring was deeply moving for the family.
"I just want to thank them so much for coming this evening and showing love and support for my husband," she said.
"It's a tremendous solace to all our family, and I just want to let them know how grateful we all are."
Friday's public viewing is scheduled to end at 3 p.m.
Because of the size of Thursday's crowds, the library is asking mourners to be in line before 1 p.m.
THE MOTORCADE
Sen. Kennedy's casket arrived at the library Thursday following a 72-mile motorcade from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port.
Large crowds gathered at the entrance to the Sagamore Bridge and on highway overpasses along Route 6 on the Cape and routes 3 and 93 into Boston.
Many held signs and waved as the hearse and other cars carrying members of the extended Kennedy family passed by. Kennedy's office said 85 members of the family traveled in the motorcade -- so many that a Peter Pan bus had to be called in to accommodate many of them.
As the motorcade neared Boston, traffic stopped on both sides of the highway and many drivers got out of their vehicles to wave or applaud.
PRIVATE FAMILY MASS
Before leaving the compound, family and friends attended a private Mass in the family home celebrated by the Rev. Donald MacMillan. Among those there were the senator's wife, Vicki; his three children, Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara; his lone surviving sibling, Jean Kennedy Smith; his former wife, Joan; and many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.
An honor guard of members representing all branches of military service from Washington, D.C., described as "bodybearers" brought Kennedy's casket out of the home at 1:45 p.m.
Raw Video: Kennedy Casket Moved
According to pool reporter Scott Helman of the Boston Globe, Kennedy's daughter, Kara, "briefly wiped away tears, but most family members were stoic with their hands clasped in front of them."
"Some family members touched the hearse softly as they walked by," Helman reported.
ARRIVAL IN BOSTON
Huge crowds lined the streets of Boston when the motorcade arrived at about 4 p.m., applauding as he hearse passed by. Kennedy family members lowered the windows of their limousines and waved.
The tour of Boston passed by significant spots in Kennedy's life, including St. Stephen's Church in the North End, where his mother, Rose, was baptized and her funeral Mass celebrated.
"It's emotional to lose a champion of the underdog. It's appropriate to show his family what he meant to us," Kristen Bielman as she watched the procession in the North End.
The motorcade crossed the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway before passing Faneuil Hall and City Hall Plaza. Mayor Tom Menino rang a bell 47 times, commemorating each of Kennedy's years in the Senate.
The motorcade drove past 122 Bowdoin St., where the senator opened his first office as an assistant district attorney and where President Kennedy lived while running for Congress in 1946.
The family then headed past the JFK federal building, home for decades of Kennedy's Boston office, before getting back onto Route 93 for the short drive to the JFK Library in Dorchester.
LIBRARY ARRIVAL & PUBLIC VIEWING
The senator and his family were greeted at the library by the Rev. J. Donald Monan, former president of Boston College, and by City Year volunteers, current and former staff and hundreds of people waiting to pay their respects.
Raw Video: Casket Arrives At Library
The City Year volunteers are helping to shuttle mourners to the library from satellite parking locations. Kennedy was a longtime supporter off the City Year program.
The senator's body is lying in repose in the library's Smith Center. It is named after Stephen Smith, Kennedy's late brother-in-law and a driving force in the library's construction.
A military guard is standing by the casket. A contingent of family and close friends are taking one-hour turns sitting with the senator during the two days of public visitation.
PRIVATE SERVICES
A private, invitation-only service will be held at the library on Friday evening at 7 p.m., followed by a private Catholic funeral Mass Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Mission Hill. The church, also known as Mission Church, is where Sen. Kennedy prayed daily while his daughter, Kara, successfully battled her own cancer.
While not open to the public, both the memorial service and funeral will have video cameras inside, and WBZ-TV and wbztv.com will have live coverage.
Speakers at Friday's memorial service will include Gov. Deval Patrick; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Sen. John Kerry; Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut; Sen. John McCain of Arizona; Vice President Joe Biden; Joseph Kennedy II, Sen. Kennedy's nephew; and the senator's niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.
President Obama will give a eulogy at Saturday's funeral. First Lady Michelle Obama will also attend.
Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also are expected to attend the Mass at the cavernous basilica.
After the service, the senator's casket will be taken to Logan Airport and flown to the nation's capital, where he will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in a 5 p.m. service.
President Obama has issued a presidential proclamation ordering the flags on all U.S. public buildings be flown at half-staff in Kennedy's honor, until sunset on Sunday.
Condolence books have been set out at the JFK Library as well as John F. Kennedy Museum in Hyannis.
In lieu of flowers, the Kennedy family has requested that the public consider making a donation to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. The Institute is being built on the campus of UMass Boston, adjacent to the JFK Museum on Columbia Point.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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