WMass residents still support the Kennedys

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

They have been with the Kennedy family since the time John F. Kennedy, a Boston Catholic, won the presidency in 1960 and ushered into the White House the days of Camelot, an era of grace, wit and youthful optimism that has never been seen again. West Springfield resident Donald Dowd and West Stockbridge's Eugene Dellea, who have been with the Kennedy family through the triumphs and the tragedies, are true believers. And, for nearly a half century, they were there for everything in between.

And so it was fitting to see Dowd, a government affairs representative for Coca Cola, and Dellea sitting together in the front row at the ninth swearing-in for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts' senior senator.

The reception was held in the Senate Russell Caucus Room, the same room where John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for president, as did the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, also gunned down by an assassin's bullet after a primary victory speech in Los Angeles in 1968.

Sitting with Dowd and Dellea was Doris Reggie, Kennedy's mother-in-law and the wife of Judge Edmund M. Reggie, who introduced his daughter, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, who is now married to the senator.

Edmund Reggie is the son of Lebanese immigrants. Both he and his wife were active in Democratic politics in Louisiana. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1956 and rallied the Louisiana delegates to nominate a relative political unknown, U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy, for vice president. Kennedy lost the nomination but found a lasting friendship with the Reggie family and the people of Louisiana.

Four years later when Kennedy sought the nomination for president, Dowd worked for his campaign. In Louisiana, Reggie headed the Kennedy campaign there.

It was at JFK's inauguration that Ludlow resident Edward King asked Dowd to work for Teddy's 1962 campaign for U.S. Senate. Dowd did and recruited Dellea. They've been the senator's friends ever since.

Kennedy calls them "the No. 1 team." They worked for Bobby in 1968 when he ran for president and on all of the senator's campaigns. They are part of the remaining few who have been with the Kennedy family since Camelot.

Reggie called the senator his best friend. He thanked Kennedy for his devotion to his daughter (they have been married 15 years) and grandchildren.

Reggie told the packed reception that a historian had told him that Edward Kennedy and Daniel Webster would go down in history as the two greatest senators. When he informed the senator of the remark, Reggie recalled, "He looked at me with a blank face, and asked: 'What did Webster do?"'

It was truly a family affair. The senator's son, Teddy Jr., introduced his father. The senator's grandchildren were there. His sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, the former ambassador to Ireland, was there. His sister-in-law, Ethel Kennedy, who was married to Robert and was pregnant with their ninth child when he was assassinated, was there with her children and grandchildren. His other sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was apparently in California at the swearing-in of her son-in-law, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as governor in California.

Kennedy was in rare form with his friends and family.

He pointed out his sister, the former ambassador, and said: "Jean wonders how many of these she is going to have to go through." He added: "Ethel has expressed the same kind of concern."

He explained the reason for Eunice's absence in a thick Austrian accent intended to be a Schwarzenegger imitation, which was compromised by his own thick Boston accent.

The senator acknowledged his wife, Vickie, as "the love of my life." "She's an indispensable partner. Great fun. Marvelously volatile, and we get along very well."

The senator took the chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this month. At his reception he spoke about the message voters delivered to lawmakers in the last election, about their need for affordable health care.

And then the senator, who turns 75 next month and is beginning his 45th year in the Senate, talked about the war in Iraq. It is an issue that pulls the passion out of his heart and soul in seconds flat.

It is that passion for what is good and just which has kept Dowd and Dellea at the senator's side, and at the side of his family.

"In all my 45 years of knowing him, I am as proud of him today," Dowd said. "He is a true American and a man of the people."

Jo-Ann Moriarty is a staff writer for The Republican who covers Washington, D.C. If you have questions related to the Western Massachusetts congressional delegation or issues being addressed by the U.S. House and Senate, please send them to pluspapers@ repub.com, attention: A View from the Hill; be sure to include your name and a daytime telephone number.