Senator Edward M. Kennedy

AP News: Senator Edward M. Kennedy Dies After Long Battle with Brain Cancer

President Obama was awoken by a top aide about 2 a.m. and notified of Kennedy’s death, a spokesman said. Obama spoke by telephone to the senator’s widow, Victoria, and issued a statement that said he and first lady Michelle Obama were “heartbroken” at the loss of a political mentor and cherished friend.

“An important chapter in our history has come to an end,” said Obama, who is vacationing with his family at a rented compound in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., a short ferry ride from the Kennedy compound where the ailing senator died late Tuesday. “Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time.”

Aides said the president was expected to speak to reporters about Kennedy at 8:30 a.m.

Kennedy, the Senate’s third-longest serving member, was a liberal guidepost in the chamber, spending almost 47 years advocating for national health care and civil rights in particular. But his friendships crossed the aisle, and his absence during the last 15 months while battling brain cancer had cast a pall on the chamber. Many lawmakers have wondered this summer how the ongoing negotiations over health-care reform would have been different if the man known as the lion of the Senate had been able to actively participate.

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