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Crowds gather as Kennedy casket leaves Mass.

E-mail|Link August 29, 2009 04:24 PM

Charles Krupa/AP

Despite the rain, a crowd lined the road to one of the entrances at Hanscom Air Force base.

By Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff

BEDFORD -- Wearing raincoats and clutching umbrellas, hundreds of people stood in a driving rain this afternoon, crowding bridges and interstates, to bid farewell as the body of Senator Edward M. Kennedy left Massachusetts.

Kennedy leaving for the last time (AP)

Mourners lined much of the 25-mile route of the funeral procession at it sped from Boston to this northwest suburb, gathering on overpasses across the Massachusetts Turnpike for one last look at the senator's hearse. Cars stopped in the lanes on Route 128 and people got out of their vehicles, standing on the roadway, waiting for the procession to pass by.

The final gesture by the citizens Kennedy represented for 47 years in the Senate visibly touched his widow. Victoria Reggie Kennedy pressed her hand against the window of her limousine as the procession passed the last few hundred people lining both sides of Hartwell Avenue at the entrance to Hanscom Air Force Base.

As the black hearse passed, Dianne Shanley covered her mouth and fought back tears from puffy, red eyes.

"It's very touching," said Shanley, 49, of Chelmsford. "I've been crying for four days."

A plane carrying Kennedy casket departed at 3:27 p.m., flying the senator's body back to Washington D.C. He will be buried later today at Arlington National Cemetery, next to his slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Many people who gathered along this final route said they wished the senator's body would have remained in the state to which he dedicated his life. That includes Ray Allen, who wore a hooded red rain slicker as he stood on Hartwell Avenue outside the Air Force base.

"He's a Massachusetts native," said Allen, 49, of Burlington. "He served Massachusetts people for so long."

But the people standing on Hartwell Avenue, calling out "Thank you Teddy," and "We love you Teddy," as the family passed by, understood why he was being buried in Arlington.

"His spirit will remain here forever," said Patti Enright-Pirrello of Sharon, standing beneath a yellow and red umbrella. "You think of Massachusetts politics, you think of Ted Kennedy, alive or dead."

Laura Tully's eyes welled with tears.

"I know that his legacy will continue to live on," said Tully, 52, of Lexington, "in the Commonwealth, in the country, and in the world."