Chris Black’s lengthy 70th birthday tribute to Sen. Ted Kennedy (“Kennedy at 70,” Tempo, March 13) notes, fleetingly and approvingly, that we now “rarely hear mention” of the Chappaquiddick accident in which a “young female campaign aide . . . died in his (the senator’s) car.”
In a feature that spanned six columns, the reporter might have found room for the victim’s name: Mary Jo Kopechne. Kopechne did, indeed, die in Kennedy’s car. She died alone while the now “beloved and respected” senator swam away to clear his head, concoct a cover story and summon the high-priced advisers who would devise the legal and public relations strategies that would save his career.
Had she been more fortunate in her choice of employers and associates, Kopechne would be 61 years old.
