Story and photos of JFK hospital by: Nat Bayjay,nbayjay2010@gmail.com (231-77-402737)
Photo of Sen. Kennedy on Flickr by Muffet

He may not been a Liberian senator; neither did he ever visit Liberia during his days on planet Earth but the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of the American state of Massachusetts is being remembered in Liberia.

At the country’s major referral hospital named in honor of the late American President John F. Kennedy, the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Liberia simply known as “JFK” is in sympathy with the Kennedy Family whose son died at the age of 77. A black and white piece of cloth with inscriptions “The John F. Kennedy Medical Center Extends Heartfelt Condolence to The Kennedy Family For The Loss of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy”.

The JFK Medical Center was built and named after former US President John Kennedy in the 1960’s following his visit to the country during the administration of the late Liberian President William VS Tubman. Prior to the Liberian civil war, the Medical Center was rated as one of the best in West Africa which provided medical services of all types to citizens from other West African countries.

The Late Sen. Kennedy is now being remembered by the hospital apparently for his impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more. He died at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts after battling a brain tumor. He was 77 and best known as the last surviving son of America’s most glamorous political family. He was the liberal lion of the Senate and haunted bearer of the Camelot torch after two of his brothers fell to assassins’ bullets.

He was the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy and New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was gunned down while seeking the White House in 1968. However, his own presidential aspirations were hobbled by the controversy around a 1969 auto accident that left a young woman dead, and a 1980 primary challenge to then-President Jimmy Carter that ended in defeat. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.

In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy served alongside 10 presidents — his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them.