The official tributes and funeral services for Senator Edward M. Kennedy will begin Thursday afternoon, when his body is carried by motorcade from the family compound in Hyannis Port to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum just outside Boston. Once the trip is completed, his body will lie in repose at the library for public viewing on Thursday, and then again on Friday, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
From 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, there will be a memorial service at the library that is closed to the public, at which Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senators John Kerry and John McCain are among the expected featured speakers.
On Saturday morning, a funeral mass will be said at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston. President Obama is expected to speak at the Mass. Afterward, Mr. Kennedy?s body will be carried by plane to Washington, and then taken to Arlington National Cemetery, where a burial ceremony is to take place at 5 p.m. (The Mass and burial will be closed to the public.)
Two of Mr. Kennedy?s brothers, John and Robert, are buried in Arlington, and the senator will be laid to rest near them.
In a separate tribute, Mr. Obama has ordered that flags fly at half-staff until sunset Sunday on federal buildings and at the White House in memory of Mr. Kennedy.
The Kennedy family has established several memorial sites and tribute areas. For the sharing of public memories, it has asked that people connect with www.tedkennedy.org. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to educational programming at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
