Sen. Ted Kennedy
1. Kennedy was born in Boston on Feb. 22, 1932, the last of nine children of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.
2. He was expelled from Harvard during his freshman year. Another student took his Spanish final exam. After a few years in the Army, he returned to Harvard, from which he graduated in 1956.
3. During his Harvard football days, the Green Bay Packers head coach showed interest in Kennedy's moves on the field. Kennedy was flattered but turned him down to attend law school at the University of Virginia.
4. He was 30 years old when elected to the Senate in 1962 to fill out the remaining two years of the term of his brother John F. Kennedy, who had been elected president. Edward Kennedy is now the second-most senior member of the Senate.
5. He married Virginia Joan Bennett in 1958 and they had three children, Kara, Edward, and Patrick.
6. In 1969, a campaign worker named Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in his car at Chappaquiddick in Martha's Vineyard after he drove off a bridge at night. He reported the accident about nine hours later.
7. Kennedy is a leading liberal legislator on Capitol Hill and a harsh critic of President Bush's Iraq policy. In a speech he declared that "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam."
8. He has written or coauthored numerous books, including Our Day and Generation: The Words of Edward M. Kennedy and America Back on Track.
9. Sailing, golfing, swimming, and listening to music are a few of his hobbies.
10. He won his eighth full Senate term with 69 percent of the vote.
Sources:
- Gale Biography Resource Center
- Almanac of American Politics
- Politics in America
- Boston Herald
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