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Nov 1 – Nov 7, 2010 Edition Kennedy Speechwriter Theodore Sorensen Dies at 82
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/November 1, 2010–Theodore C. Sorensen, who was a close adviser and counselor to John F. Kennedy for 11 years, died Sunday, October 31 at age 82.
Sorensen helped shape the presidents image and legacy, giving words and voice to the ideas of Kennedys presidency.
Mr. Sorensen once mused that the headline on his obituary would read: “Theodore Sorenson, Kennedy Speechwriter,” misspelling his name and misjudging his work. “I was never just a speechwriter,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2007.
He was best known for working with Mr. Kennedy on passages of soaring rhetoric, including the 1961 inaugural address proclaiming that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” and challenging citizens: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Mr. Sorensen drew on the Bible, the Gettysburg Address and the words of Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill to help craft that speech.
