JFK Library opens doors to Kennedy mourners

— -- The doors opened for the public viewing of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy after mourners collected outside the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for hours on Thursday.

Kennedy's flag-draped casket arrived after a motorcade traveled 70 miles from the family compound in Cape Cod past sites of significance to his life.

Under a clear, blue sky, Kennedy's casket was carried out of his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., shortly after 2 p.m. to begin his final journey to Boston on a route lined with people who applauded, snapped photos, held up signs that read "Thank you Ted," and wept.

Family members had arrived at the compound before noon for a private Mass.

Children in bathing suits and towels around their necks watched from the porches of neighboring houses as they arrived. A handful of neighbors watched quietly from behind a white picket fence.

A flag flew at half-staff in the center of the circular driveway of the house. Uniformed members of an honor guard gathered at the side of the house and then moved to the front porch, where a seagull flew around and landed on the driveway.

The casket was carried out of the house and around the outside porch by members of the guard. As it was carried to the hearse family members gathered outside, with Kennedy's wife, Vicki, standing in front with a gang of children behind her.

The motorcade made a number of stops significant to Kennedy before arriving at the library, where Kennedy's body will lie in repose until Friday.

Sandra Regan came to stand on the steps of her childhood church, St. Stephen's Catholic Church in the North End of Boston, where the motorocade passed by. She wanted to honor "everything he achieved in the Senate."

Regan said she wanted to praise Kennedy for responding to her every time she wrote to him about an issue she cared about. And she wanted to say that, in her eyes, Kennedy, whose flaws were as well known in his life as his achievements, had been redeemed.