R.F.K. Remembered

"When Robert Francis Kennedy died on June 6, 1968, the country was only beginning to discover who he was. R.F.K. would not have been critical of that belated awakening. He had just discovered Robert F. Kennedy himself." So, on the anniversary of his death, recalls TIME Correspondent Hays Gorey, who covered him as Senator and presidential candidate.

Since his assassination, Bobby Kennedy has undergone a considerable transformation in the American memory and conscience. Few today recall Kennedy as the abrasive prosecutor, aggressive politician, and outspoken advocate. The reputation that lingers is one he went far toward creating during the last few months of his life: war critic, champion of the black and the Mexican-American, crusader for the very young, the very old, and all those who have been shunted aside from social and economic progress. His murder gave a new poignancy--and a new political legitimacy--to the people and the causes he sponsored and sheltered. "His death," said Hubert Humphrey recently, "may very well have changed the whole political direction of the country."

This week in Washington, hundreds of friends will attend a memorial Mass for Bobby. His widow Ethel and her eleven children will be hosts at a buffet for the Senator's old friends at the Hickory Hill estate. The District of Columbia stadium will be renamed for Robert F. Kennedy, as will ski slopes, chapels, high schools and bridges around the U.S. A game preserve in far away Tanzania will also be dedicated in his name. Congress has authorized $750,000 to build an access road and other improvements at his Arlington grave site. In the last year, five and a half million visitors have filed quietly past his grave, not far from the eternal flame that commemorates his elder brother, whom he later joined in the pantheon of American leaders.

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