Washington’s elite will bid a solemn but fairly understated goodbye to Sen. Edward Kennedy this weekend with a private burial at the Republic’s most hallowed ground.
The biggest farewells for the long-serving Massachusetts senator will occur in his native Boston, but then he is scheduled to be flown to the capital for a private interment at Arlington National Cemetery.
Some details of Saturday’s burial had yet to be decided, said Col. Daniel Baggio, chief of staff for the U.S. Army Military District of Washington at Fort McNair.
If the Kennedy family chooses to have a graveside eulogy or prayer, it is members of the Army’s 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, or “The Old Guard,” who would perform the 21-volley rifle salute at the end — and its bugler who would play taps.
He’ll be buried next to his slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
The only D.C.-area ceremony scheduled is Saturday’s burial.
Ted Kennedy persisted through a series of personal and political debacles to become one of the grand old men of the Senate. Kennedy died early Wednesday at age 77 after a struggle with brain cancer.
Eighty-five Kennedy family relatives traveled with the body as it was driven to Boston via motorcade from the family’s Hyannis Port compound Thursday. He was scheduled to lie in state at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
Among those accompanying Kennedy were nieces Caroline, daughter of the former president, and Maria Shriver, daughter of his late sister Eunice; and his son Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman.
— Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
