NBC29Eagleburger, Young Remember Kennedy

Eagleburger, Young Remember Kennedy

Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy is being remembered for what he did for Massachusetts, but he's also being remembered by people in Central Virginia for the time he spent in Charlottesville.

Kennedy graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1959. Three years after he left Charlottesville, at age 30, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

"He was very brilliant as a public servant and as a politician and as a senator. But not as a law student," says Professor James Young of the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Professor James Young got to know Senator Kennedy over the last few years while working on an oral history project of Kennedy's life for the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

"After we got used to each other and a relaxed way of talking came about, I found him to be a person with a very big heart. He was essentially a very kind person," Young says.

Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger got to see that first-hand...including Kennedy's feisty side.

"In terms of his colleagues in the Senate, on the issues like Vietnam, he was always the tough fellow. He was never much of a compromiser," says Eagleburger.

He tells NBC29 that Kennedy mellowed over the years and was more willing to work across the aisle.

In his experiences with the senator, he was an honest man.

"He never lied to me, never misled me. I was impressed with his character," Eagleburger says.

Both Eagleburger and Professor Young say Kennedy left a great legacy, even though he didn't reach all of his goals.

"He never got to be President, though he had wanted to be. But he accomplished perhaps more than he could have as President as a Senator," Professor Young said.

And they agree that it's still a legacy that will last well into the future for Democrats and Republicans alike.

The oral history project will be out some time in 2010.

Reported by Tracy Clemons
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