WASHINGTON (AP) -- Kathleen Kennedy Townsend still doesn't like to talk publicly about her memories of the June 6, 1968, death of her father, Robert F. Kennedy.
But she clearly remembers—and freely talks about—the letter her father gave her the day her uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 1963 after he was assassinated. Her father would be buried at Arlington five years later.
"'Dear Kathleen,' he said," Townsend recalls part of the letter saying. "'As the oldest of the Kennedy grandchildren you have a special responsibility: be kind to others and work for your country. Love, Daddy.'"
Townsend, now 56, was 16 when Sirhan Sirhan shot her father June 5, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after Kennedy's victory in the state's Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy died the next day. On the 40th anniversary of his death on Friday, family members will attend a Mass at Arlington.
Townsend said she still has that letter and continues to reflect on its message about love of country and compassion.
She said her father passed on the idea that "we have to look forward. We have to be compassionate towards others and we have to have a sense of responsibility."
"It was a very warm and embracing message, and I think it's the message that my father had personally for his family, for our family, but it grew into a larger message for this country," Townsend said this week during an interview with The Associated Press.
I disagree with the very liberal politics adopted by the Kennedys, post-President John F. Kennedy; but I greatly admire the family's emphasis on service to our country.
Robert Kennedy's letter to his little girl almost 45 years ago holds a message we should all heed: "Be kind to others and work for your country."
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