Ted Kennedy — The Last Brother

CBS News Shares Intimate Moments Of A Remarkable American Life

(CBS)  Teddy's Triumphs

In 1992, at the age of 60, Ted Kennedy married 38-year-old Victoria Reggie, a divorced lawyer with two children.

Kennedy on his Personal Life
Teddy's Intern

60 Minutes and CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl sat down with the couple in their suburban Washington home in 1998.

"Let me ask you a somewhat delicate question. He had a reputation at that time as kind of a rowdy bachelor. You hadn't heard? I don't want to be the first to tell you, but he did. And did that bother you at the time?" Stahl asked.

"I had absolutely no reservations about him whatsoever. None," Victoria Reggie Kennedy replied. "I just knew I had this wonderful, wonderful man who had come into my life. And I didn't have one tiny reservation."

Kennedy's children left the nest. Kara, the eldest, survived lung cancer and works for the Special Olympics, Teddy Jr. runs a group that helps the handicapped, and Patrick showed up for work on Capitol Hill.

Kennedy's youngest son was elected congressman from Rhode Island in 1994.

The senator's commitment to children went beyond his own family.

For example, he met Jasmine Harrison at an inner-city school every week for four years to help her learn to read.

"I loved the sessions, because they were fun. He would act out what was going on in the book, and add voices. And it, you know, it was something I looked forward to," Harrison said.

Stahl says the secret of Ted Kennedy is "personality and compassion. Plus, nobody's more fun loving… You want to be in his presence, because he had that laugh and that kind of twinkle."

"I think he was as natural a politician as the family produced," added Greenfield.

Even when his charm didn't carry the day, Kennedy pushed on. He never gave up on the goal he'd pursued for most of his career: enacting a national health insurance program.

"He figured out early that he couldn't really get it done in one big bite," Stahl said. "He figured out how to do it in little bites… winning people from the other side of the aisle, compromising… taking what he could get… and then coming back the very next day with another law."

And, even when he was out-voted, Kennedy was willing to take unpopular stands. He was one of the first politicians to oppose the 2003 American invasion of Iraq.

But Kennedy supported the soldiers who served in Iraq, and their families -
especially those from his own state.

"He's gone to the funeral of every soldier who's come home from Iraq in a casket, whether it's up in Massachusetts or at Arlington Cemetery. And it's hard. But he knows it pays respect for giving the last full measure that these young soldiers have given. And after he goes to that funeral, he goes up and visits the graves of his brothers," according to long-time Kennedy aide Melody Miller.

In nearly five decades, through political thick and thin, he achieved remarkable success.

"You cannot tick off everything he accomplished in the Senate just sitting here. It's forever. He did children's health, women's sports, AIDS, immigration," Stahl said. "…COBRA, where if you change jobs you still get your insurance. I don't know how many health bills, how many education bills. Civil rights, the Voting Rights Act. Did I say minimum wage?"

Asked what he'd like to be remembered for, Kennedy told Stahl, "I think making a difference in the country, for the country."

"When you say that, do you have your brothers, your mother looking over your shoulder?" Stahl asked.

"Well the family set high standards. And they're always worthwhile measuring up to, exceeding them when I can," he replied.

And, in 2008, Kennedy found another Democrat who he thought would measure up to those standards.