Kennedy Family

WASHINGTON -- It had been nearly 35 years since John F. Kennedy Jr. romped through the private quarters of the White House, 35 years since Camelot's violent end.But when President Clinton granted the younger Kennedy a sentimental tour of the residence area at the White House in March 1998, the memories came rushing back."

WASHINGTON -- For a generation of Americans, the tragedies of the Kennedy family have become a grim but familiar national ritual.Everything else seems to be frozen in place. The country stands still while we wait for some definitive word that we have come to know is almost certainly going to be bad news.Almost 36 years ago, we waited for the news about President John F. Kennedy from Parkland Hospital in Dallas.This time we waited for news about the fate of John F. Kennedy Jr. -- whom many of us knew first all those years ago as John John, the little boy who saluted his father's flag-covered casket.

WASHINGTON -- A Republican senator jokingly warned Ted Kennedy during a heated moment in last week's health care debate that Kennedy was so riled up he might keel over from a heart attack.But that's not how fate works in the Kennedy family.Teddy is the survivor. The only one of the handsome princes allowed to grow old, wrinkled and fat. The only one to truly fulfill the promise of his family's commitment to public service.Yesterday as he traveled to Long Island to console his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, on the loss of her brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy once again took up his role of patriarch-by-default: the one left to pick up the pieces of a family plagued by tragedy.

WASHINGTON -- The Kennedys are expected to assemble aboard the destroyer USS Briscoe and slip the remains of John F. Kennedy Jr. into the Massachusetts waters the family has sailed in times of joy and sorrow.The ceremony is expected to take place this morning, said Pentagon and government sources, under a Navy regulation that allows civilians to be buried at sea in the event of "notable service or outstanding contributions" to the United States.Sen. Edward M. Kennedy asked Defense Secretary William S. Cohen to permit the burial at sea, an ancient maritime tradition.

July 16* John F. Kennedy Jr., 38, takes off in his single-engined Piper Saratoga (similar to the one pictured) from the Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, at 8:38 p.m. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and her sister Lauren Bessette, 35, are passengers.* They are expected at Martha's Vineyard about 10 p.m.July 17* Kennedy family alerts authorities at 2 a.m. that the plane is overdue.* News of the missing plane breaks Saturday morning as television networks begin continuous coverage.

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. -- At St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, where for 75 years the Kennedy family has worshiped, wed and mourned, the Rev. Edward Byington asked midway through yesterday's morning Mass: "Why are there calamities in life?"Even for the faithful, it is the most unfathomable of questions. When Byington's somber congregation of residents and tourists bowed their heads in silent prayer, some said they asked for a miracle. Some said they prayed for strength.So began another hot day on Cape Cod of waiting to learn the fate of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette.

The Kennedys were gathered in Hyannis Port yesterday for what was to be a joyous occasion -- the wedding of Rory, the daughter Robert F. Kennedy never lived to see. Instead, they found themselves uniting in the all-too-familiar rituals of grief in what seems likely to become the latest in the unending series of tragedies that has struck this family."

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. -- It began early yesterday, this gravitation of neighbors, vacationers, news crews and police officers, this spontaneous vigil outside the Kennedy family's waterfront compound, where the hopes for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s survival dwindled as the crowd grew and grew.Throughout the hot, breezy day, cars squeezed onto the grass along Ivannough and Irving avenues. Teen-agers came by bike. Parents pushed their infants there in strollers. All of them were drawn by their curiosity and their emotions to this legendary American family in yet another crisis.

TWO WEEKS AGO, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend sat down with me for an hourlong interview for an article focusing on the early stages of her campaign for governor in 2002.She talked about her crime prevention initiatives, her new concentration on economic development issues and her political plans.One thing we did not discuss."Did you realize I didn't ask you about your family?" I said as we wrapped up.Townsend paused and smiled."You know, that's the first time that's ever happened," she said.

OUR fascination with the Kennedys looks like it will continue well into a fourth decade.All those hours of nonstop television coverage on the crash of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane reflect the emotional attachment -- and insatiable interest -- millions of Americans still hold for the Kennedy family.Yes, television networks overdid it. The coverage was vapid and excessive. Young Mr. Kennedy wasn't an elected official, a giant in the arts or a seminal social or civic figure.He was, though, in the eyes of ratings-conscious news executives, "good copy."

Maryland officials joined in mourning Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, with many describing him as irreplaceable and some expressing hope that his death might help revive a faltering Democratic effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a co-chair of Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign who would later serve with him in the Senate for 22 years, described the Massachusetts Democrat as a loyal friend who was "modest about himself." At one of the high points of Kennedy's life, his speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, it was Mikulski who introduced him to the crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York.

DENVER - The lights will dim inside the Pepsi Center tonight, a shock of silver hair will appear on giant monitors, and connections will be made once again between Camelot and the Obama nation. A film tribute to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a 46-year-veteran of the Senate diagnosed with a brain tumor this year, will dominate the opening hours of the Democratic National Convention. Watching from a prime seat will be Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maryland's former lieutenant governor and Kennedy's niece, one of the state's 99 delegates here.

At 19, Susan Carole Kennedy kept a hope chest filled with pots and pans, and salt and pepper shakers. She was looking ahead to married life with her high school sweetheart. She even had an apartment building picked out, her fiance recalled. Kennedy wasn't supposed to be working the desk that afternoon at Pikesville's Warren House Motor Hotel. She was filling in for her older sister -- a federal witness with a price on her head. A man with a machine pistol arrived to carry out the hit. "This guy really just destroyed this family," Keith Rice said last week as the convicted gunman's execution date neared.

IF DEMOCRATS try to rewrite next year's election calendar, they will cloak their self-serving maneuver in the rhetoric of good government: People will have more time to consider their choices, people want more time to find out where candidates stand on the issues, etc. The real reasons, of course, are purely political. Democrats believe an earlier party primary and a longer general election season may be useful in a year when intraparty competition could leave hard feelings among Democratic pols and voters.

HARTFORD, Conn. - The lawyer for Kennedy family member Michael Skakel argued to the state Supreme Court yesterday that a five-year statute of limitations in place when 15-year-old Martha Moxley was bludgeoned to death in 1975 should have barred his prosecution a quarter-century later. "Michael Skakel should never have been charged in 2000. Michael Skakel should never have been tried and convicted in 2002, and Michael Skakel should never have been incarcerated for two-and-a-half years," Hope Seeley argued to the five-member panel.

LOS ANGELES - In a stunning finale to a tumultuous campaign, angry California voters fired Gov. Gray Davis less than a year into his term and lifted movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger into the governor's chair, according to exit polling and partial returns in yesterday's recall election. Schwarzenegger overcame a stream of last-minute newspaper reports about alleged improper sexual conduct to win elective office on his first try. Among the keys to his victory were backing from independent voters and stronger-than-expected support from women, exit polling showed.

HYANNIS, MASS. - On an hour-long tour of Hyannis Harbor aboard the 1911 coastal steamer Prudence, a guide enthusiastically points out the ancient dunes where Indians shucked clams, the spit of land that once stretched clear across to nearby Great Island, and the Prudence's romantic history as a submarine-watcher during World War I. The passengers don't pay much attention. At least not until he utters the words everyone has been waiting for: "Kennedy compound." Suddenly the tourists strain against the starboard railing, counting chimneys, as instructed, to discern one house from another.

SILVER SPRING - State Del. Mark K. Shriver offered a preview of his first televised campaign ad for Congress yesterday and, notably, it didn't mention his middle name of Kennedy or allude to the family's legacy. Nor do his handlers expect to use Kennedy references in future campaign spots, although they won't rule out that possibility. "I won't say never, but Mark is interested in talking about his track record fighting for people," said Mike Henry, his campaign manager. The 30-second introductory spot, which begins airing today in the Washington-area market, launches what is expected to be a flood of commercials by Democratic candidates in the 8th District congressional primary - the nation's most expensive House race in money raised.

MARTIN O'MALLEY said he'd support his party's nominee for governor this year, but he didn't exactly reach for Kathleen K. Townsend's hand and raise it for the TV cameras in the ballroom, did he? Our charismatic mayor will not challenge Townsend and the Kennedy clan by entering the Democratic gubernatorial primary, and he said he was doing this for the good of the city, which is admirable. But excuse me for asking: How does dissing the woman who could possibly be Maryland's next governor serve the good of the city?

WASHINGTON -- The recent naming of the Justice Department building in Washington after the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy came about so suddenly that there was no time to debate the wisdom of such a proclamation. Although the media have been quick to point out the contradictions inherent in a conservative Republican president honoring a liberal Democratic icon, the swiftness of President Bush's executive order has all but negated a serious discussion about the aptness of such a memorial.