Edward M. Kennedy photos | 1932-2009

Sen. Edward Kennedy arrives at the home of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver in Hyannis Port, Mass., on Aug. 11, 2009. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of Edward Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, who founded the Special Olympics, died that day at the age of 88.  (Steven Senne / Associated Press)

President Obama speaks at the White House Forum on Health Reform in the East Room. Looking on are Director of White House Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Sen. Max Baucus and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.  (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

President Obama meets with Sen. Edward Kennedy in the Oval Office in April 2009. In August 2009, the ailing liberal leader wrote to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and state legislative leaders, asking them to alter the method by which Kennedy’s successor could be chosen. Massachusetts law calls for a special election to be held when a Senate vacancy arises, a process that would take months. Kennedy urged the Legislature to act to allow Patrick, a fellow Democrat, to appoint an interim replacement until such an election could be held. Kennedy wrote: “It is vital for this commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.”  (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy listens to Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in April 2008.  (Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty Images)

Members of the Kennedy family gather at the graves of President Kennedy, RFK and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at Arlington National Cemetery on Nov. 22, 1995, the 32nd anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. From left are Ethel Kennedy, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Victoria Reggie, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Eunice Shriver.  (Mark Wilson / Associated Press)

Kennedy stumps for his niece, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, in her 2002 gubernatorial bid.  (Roberto Borea / Associated Press)

Victoria Reggie Kennedy and her husband, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, share a laugh during a Profiles in Courage Award ceremony at the John. F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston in 2004. Friends said that their 1992 marriage energized and settled Kennedy.  (Michael Dwyer / Associated Press)

Kennedy returns to Hyannis Port in June 2008 after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor. In May 2008, he was diagnosed with a malignant glioma, one of the most lethal forms of brain cancer, on the left side of his brain. Doctors cut out the tumor on June 2, and Kennedy was expected to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment. “I feel like a million bucks. I think I will do that again tomorrow,” he told his wife after the surgery.  (Joel Page / Associated Press)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stands next to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) before President Bush’s State of the Union speech on Jan. 28, 2008.

In endorsing Obama for president, Kennedy said: “He will be a president who refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter, who cares passionately about the causes he believes in without demonizing those who hold a different view. He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to the better angels of our nature. I’m proud to stand with him here today and offer my help, offer my voice, offer my energy, my commitment to make Barack Obama the next president of the United States. “  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama at East Los Angeles College. Kennedy spoke halting Spanish as he told the cheering crowd: “A vote for Obama is a vote for the people.”  (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

Edward M. Kennedy, flanked by his wife Victoria Reggie, left, and niece Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, is greeted with applause and tears as he makes his way onstage at the Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver in August 2008. “So, with Barack Obama, and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on,” Kennedy said in his address, echoing his words from the 1980 convention.  (Robyn Beck /AFP/Getty Images)