The life in photos of Ted Kennedy, younger brother of JFK, who was born on this day

Published: Feb. 22, 2024, 7:19 p.m.

Ted Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. As part of the family dynasty, Ted was also a politician, one of the longest-serving ever, as a matter of fact. Ted served as a Massachusetts Democrat in the U.S. Senate from 1962, when he won a special election fill his brother JFK's seat, until he died in 2009.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, center, of Mass., waits for the start of Tennessee senior Sen. Estes Kefauver's funeral on Aug. 14, 1963, at his boyhood home in Madisonville, Tenn. Sen. Kennedy said \"Sen. Kefauver was a good friend of the President from the time my brother came ton Congress. When I came to the Senate Sen. Kefauver befriended me. I'm saddened by his death and we'll all miss him.\
U.S. Sen. Edward \"Ted \" Kennedy (front) appears at a Sept. 30, 1972, campaign event at Turners Hall in Wilmington to support local Democratic candidates, including Senate candidate Joe Biden (left), with his wife Neilia. Photo by Fred Comegys
Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy speaks at a fundraising dinner at the Meadowlands Hilton in Secaucus, N.J., on October 28, 1981. The dinner was held to raise money for the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy speaks at a fundraising dinner at the Meadowlands Hilton in Secaucus, N.J., on October 28, 1981. The dinner was held to raise money for the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy speaks at a fundraising dinner at the Meadowlands Hilton in Secaucus, N.J., on October 28, 1981. The dinner was held to raise money for the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Senator Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy speaks at a fundraising dinner at the Meadowlands Hilton in Secaucus, N.J., on October 28, 1981. The dinner was held to raise money for the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Senator Ted Kennedy, along with Kennedy and Bessette family members, disembark from the United States Coast Guard cutter Hammerhead at the Woods Hole Coast Guard Station following a funeral at sea of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Gail Bessette.
After the funeral for Sen. Estes Kefauver in Madisonville, Tenn., on Aug. 14, 1963, Tenn. Sen. Albert Gore, left, talks with Mass. Sen. Ted Kennedy in the rain before he left