Tens of thousands pay their respect

The last time Ginger Romano saw Sen. Ted Kennedy, she wasn't at her best.

As she took clothing, blankets and other supplies to a high school for people whose homes had been damaged in Boston's great blizzard of 1978, she tripped over a snow bank. A pair of hands helped her to her feet. It was Kennedy, who had been walking behind her.

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"He said to me, 'What can I do to help you?'" she said. "Then he thanked me and my family."

The weather was fairer but the mood somber Friday at his public viewing, where Romano took her turn to thank Kennedy along with other people who turned out in such numbers that the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library had to open its doors early as the late senator lay in repose for a second day.

"I don't think we'll ever see the likes of him again," said Romano's daughter, 44-year-old Michelle Romano, of Revere. She had shown up with her mother at 7 a.m. to find a line already several hundred people long.

On hand to greet visitors at the closed-casket viewing were members of the Kennedy family, among them the senator's daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen, and nephew Tim Shriver, as well as nieces Victoria and Robin Lawford.

More than 21,000 people filed past Kennedy's flag-draped casket Thursday in a high-ceilinged room with spectacular views of Boston Harbor. A five-person military honor guard stood at attention around the casket.

Large photos of Kennedy with his family greeted mourners on their way into the room, including one of Kennedy as a boy with his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, and a 1960s-era shot of Kennedy with his slain brothers, John and Robert.

The library was supposed to close at 11 p.m. Thursday, but the doors were left open until 2 a.m. Friday. Visitors later Friday had until 3 p.m., at which point the viewing was to end to make time for a collection of big political names converging for a private "Celebration of Life" service.

Scheduled speakers include Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Christopher Dodd; and niece Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President Kennedy. Performances will include "God Bless America" and Kennedy's favorite song, "The Impossible Dream."

Among visitors Friday morning was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said Kennedy helped change the country through his work for minorities, the disabled and the poor.

"As a rich person, no one reached back further for the poor or exalted them higher," Jackson said.

Visitors represented a cross-section of race and class, and many of them said they had benefited directly from Kennedy's 47 years of work in the Senate.

Fred Foster, 51, of Boston's Brighton neighborhood, said he was helped by Kennedy's work on COBRA, the federal program that allows people to retain their former company's health benefits under some circumstances.

"A few years ago I was laid off and I continued to have my health insurance because of COBRA, and that's a direct result of what Sen. Kennedy did," Foster said.

George Thomas, a member of Connecticut's Pequot tribe, arrived Friday wearing an otter turban and said he brought prayers and condolences for Kennedy's family from 40 tribes across the Northeast and Southwest.

If a tribe had a dispute over land or water rights, "a simple call to his office would resolve it," Thomas said.

As she waited in line, retired nurse Frances Murphy Araujo, 66, recalled piling into an old Chevy with six college friends and driving all night to go to John F. Kennedy's funeral in 1963.

"There's a real admiration and affection for the Kennedys in my family," she said.

"Ted Kennedy rolled up his sleeves and got the work done," she added. "He was very down to earth. You felt like you could approach him."

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston on Saturday. President Barack Obama is expected to deliver the eulogy.

All the living former presidents are expected to attend except for George H.W. Bush. Spokesman Jim McGrath said Friday that the 85-year-old Bush feels his son's presence will "amply and well represent" the family.

Kennedy's body was delivered to the library Thursday by a motorcade of family members and friends who had celebrated a private Mass at the family compound in Hyannis Port, 70 miles away, where Kennedy spent his final days.

Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his brothers at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.

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Associated Press writers Ray Henry in Hyannis Port and Jeannie Nuss and Russell Contreras in Boston contributed to this report.