Sen. Ted Kennedy during the closing session of the White House’s forum on health care reform, March 5, 2009. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

For older people and the less fortunate in America, Edward M. Kennedy was the fighter who never quit, the voice that never wavered, the power that was true to the politician’s highest ideals of service. He came from a haunted, privileged family, and his life was beset by tragic personal behavior that probably cost him the U.S. presidency. But as the senator from Massachusetts, Kennedy worked with diligence and passion, and he did so for four-and-a-half decades.

Afflicted for months with a malignant brain tumor, Kennedy in his last hours worked off the Senate floor through his staff to influence health care reform, which he vowed long ago to bring about in his lifetime. When he died Tuesday night, at age 77, he left a legacy that will touch all Americans for generations.

“Senator Kennedy was more than an activist—he was a hero,” said A. Barry Rand, AARP CEO. “He was a champion for all Americans, especially those whose voices lacked strength.” Older Americans will remember Kennedy, Rand said, “for the retirement security he protected, for the health care coverage he expanded and for challenging everyone to volunteer to make this country better.”

Medicare, Meals on Wheels, Social Security

“The test of every great civilization is how it cares for its elderly,” Kennedy once said, and older Americans benefited from his push for the Meals on Wheels and Medicare programs.

Throughout his career he remained one of the Senate’s staunchest supporters of Social Security. Because he opposed the coverage gap in the prescription drug benefit, he voted against Medicare Part D. But he spent so much time and energy creating the benefit that his allies still count it as one of his victories. Even as his cancer progressed, Kennedy fought to close the “doughnut hole” in Part D, which leaves some older Americans without prescription drug coverage.

In 2008, weakened by cancer, he made an emotional appearance in the Senate to vote for a bill that would blunt scheduled cuts of Medicare payments to physicians. “I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens,” Kennedy said, “and that’s to protect Medicare. Win, lose or draw, I wasn’t going to take the chance that my vote could make the difference.” Members agreed and the bill passed.

In other areas, Kennedy compiled a monumental record of legislation that included bills on civil rights, health care, education and immigration. Through his bills he helped raise the minimum wage, gave clear rights to the disabled, ensured the privacy of medical and insurance records, and established a federal cancer research program that has quadrupled the amount of money spent fighting the disease.

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