Thousands Pay Respects to Kennedy
ROBERTS: Live pictures this morning from the JFK Library and Museum. The body of Senator Ted Kennedy lying in repose today. And the body will be available for viewing until 3:00 this afternoon. He was known as the lion of the Senate, working for decades on social issues. But there was a quieter side to Senator Ted Kennedy. Almost every week away from the cameras, he found time to read to children. Jim Acosta caught up with some of them and has that story now from Washington.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Carroll, it's one of the defining legacies of the Kennedy family -- the call to serve. It's a call that's been answered by countless Americans and it's one that Ted Kennedy answered himself.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): It was one of Ted Kennedy's last public appearances. President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the largest expansion of national service programs since the great depression. As the president revealed, service was more than policy for Kennedy, it was personal.</s>PRESIDENT OBAMA: Even in the midst of his epic fights on the floor of the Senate to enact sweeping change, he's made a quiet trek to a school not far from the capitol week after week, year after year without cameras or fanfare to sit down and read with one solitary child.</s>ACOSTA: It was this school and this little girl named Laurenia.</s>LAURENIA THOMPSON, READ TO BY SEN. KENNEDY: He said that this is</s>SEN. KENNEDY: One, two, three!</s>ACOSTA: They played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would read first. Was it fun reading with him?</s>THOMPSON: Yes.</s>ACOSTA: Her mom says it was more than fun.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He really impacted her as far as having a hunger to read.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a United States senator, he's read every Tuesday at a local school in Washington, D.C. as part of an "Everybody Wins" program.</s>ACOSTA: Kennedy's role in the "Everybody Wins" mentoring program was highlighted in a tribute at last year's democratic convention. One of his earlier students now in college.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It gave me someone to want to do well for and make proud.</s>ACOSTA: Lavonia Pateau witnessed Kennedy's visits for five years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He came in, read with the student, they talked, they had a good time and he would slip back out the door and that was the end of it.</s>ACOSTA: There's that expression of talking the talk and walking the walk.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, and he definitely walked the walk.</s>ACOSTA: Now there's a new generation on that walk.</s>MONIQUE HYACINTHE, AMERICORPS VOLUNTEER: For him to be able to take an hour out of his day out of the week to come read to a child in the schools, I mean, no one has an excuse to say I'm too busy.</s>ACOSTA: Monique Hyancinthe and Jenna Greenspan just signed on with "Everybody Wins" as part of the Americorps program, inspired by the Kennedy family's call to service. (</s>On camera): These aren't figures from another time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not for me. It's a generation I almost wish I had experienced.</s>ACOSTA: At the school the senator visited so often, two books are left behind, signed, best wishes, Ted Kennedy.</s>ACOSTA: Kennedy pushed through that expansion of national service programs at a critical time, with so many young people looking for jobs these days, Americorps says its applications have tripled. John and Carol?</s>ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us this morning, Jim thanks so much.</s>COSTELLO: Here's what's on the A.M. rundown in the next 15 minutes. Rob Marciano has literally gone to the dogs. It's Friday and that means another edition of Rob's Road Show. He's in Mystic, Connecticut today for dog days. We'll go there live to see the talented pooches Rob's rounded up so far. At 7:50 Eastern Time, the New Jersey town is trying to keep Libya's leader away. After Muammar Qaddafi and Libya welcomed the Pan Am bomber back with open arms, our Jill Dougherty shows us how far angry residents of Englewood, New Jersey are going to keep him and his tent from the neighborhood. That may or may not happen when he visits the U.N. next month. That is 7:55 Eastern. If you think a $9 trillion federal deficit is just too big to get your arms around? Christine Romans shows you how you may be the one paying for it. As if that's news to you. It's 41 minutes past the hour.