Many Mourners, Many Memories at Kennedy's Burial Procession
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
The American flag was flying at half-staff above the McDonald's across from the main gate of Andrews Air Force Base. Families lined Allentown Road, hoping to catching a glimpse of the hearse carrying the flag-draped coffin of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
Frank Walton, 76, a retired federal worker from Camp Springs, came to Saturday's funeral procession with his wife and daughter. Pierre Burney, 48, a coach at the Oxon Hill Boys & Girls Club, came with his wife, his children and football team members still in game pads.
And Thea Bradley, 49, of Temple Hills came with a Bible passage that she had heard read at Kennedy's funeral earlier in the day. The 25th chapter of Matthew "says when I was hungry, you gave me food," she said. "Senator Kennedy really cared for people, whatever state they were in."
Bradley brought her 18-year-old daughter to see the procession in the same way her mother brought her to a railroad track in Landover in 1968. "She wanted us to see the train that was carrying Senator Robert Kennedy's casket. The people put coins on the track to have a souvenir of the moment."
From the road outside the gate of Andrews to Memorial Bridge leading to Arlington National Cemetery, thousands paid their respects to Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his family.
The Rev. Jerome Bell, a Forestville pastor who had a program on WYCB (1340 AM), said Kennedy went to the studio to be on his gospel show when he didn't have to. "I thought he was going to give me an interview on the phone, but then his office called and said he wanted to come in person," Bell said.
Even as the sun bowed to dark clouds and the sounds of thunder in the western sky, the crowds waited until the slow-moving motorcade passed and turned near the Lincoln Memorial to cross Memorial Bridge and enter Arlington Cemetery.
Robert Miller, 53, legislative counsel for D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), stood along the road with his wife and daughter. "It is an honor to be here and to thank them for all of their decades of public service," he said.
Marcus Gore, 55, of Springfield also felt compelled to be along the curb. "I wanted to pay my respects to a great humanitarian," Gore said. "He has done more for this country and the world than several presidents put together."
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