President Obama To Deliver Eulogy At Ted Kennedy Funeral
Aug. 27 2009, Published 9:24 a.m. ET
President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy at Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral Mass in Boston on Saturday.
Ceremonies honoring Kennedy begin Thursday afternoon with a motorcade from the family compound in Hyannis Port to the JFK Library in Boston, a 70-mile journey. A public wake will be held later Thursday in the library's Smith Center, where his body will lie in repose.
The public viewing will continue on Friday until 4pm. Then, the library will close to the public, and an invitation-only celebration of his life and memorial service will be held Friday evening.
On Saturday, Kennedy’s funeral will be held at The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston.
Commonly known as the Mission Church, the 1,450-seat basilica on Tremont Street was built in the 1870s. Kennedy prayed there in 2003 while his daughter, Kara, was being treated for lung cancer.
The funeral will be by invitation only.
After the mass, a motorcade will then proceed to Logan International Airport and the funeral party will fly to Washington, D.C.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, Kennedy will be buried next to John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery. The service will be a private, family-only affair.
Kennedy died Tuesday after a year-long fight with brain cancer. He was 77.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to educational programming at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. A website has been set up in memory of Kennedy where people can post their memories