After his diagnosis of fatal brain cancer in May of last year, Mr. Kennedy had time to help plan Friday’s sendoff. The speakers and the guests reflected his rich and varied life: family and friends, aides and constituents, local politicians and national statesmen.  The service, formally called “A Celebration of Life,” bore many of the hallmarks of an Irish wake: prayer and song, robust laughter and quiet tears.  The memorial took place in the same stark, maple-paneled room where thousands of mourners had come to view Mr. Kennedy’s coffin on Thursday and Friday. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the lights of the Boston skyline blinked on as rain and darkness fell.  Among the speakers were senators of both political parties, longtime Kennedy family advisers and his niece Caroline Kennedy. The invocation was delivered by the Rev. Gerry Creedon, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church in Arlington, Va., a counselor to Mr. Kennedy for more than 30 years.  In the fullness of his life, Father Creedon said, Mr. Kennedy suffered through wakeful nights, but also dreamed. “He gave flesh to that dream, to the noble house of his thought where the sick were healed, the spear broken and the stranger welcomed,” he said.  Paul G. Kirk Jr., a longtime Kennedy family adviser and chairman of the Kennedy library, said Mr. Kennedy “bore more hurt and heartache than most humans are ever asked to endure.” And yet, Mr. Kirk added, he loved to laugh and make others laugh, lead family singalongs and spin glorious tales.  “Be at peace, my friend,” Mr. Kirk concluded. “America will be in your debt forever.”  One of Mr. Kennedy’s closest personal and political friends, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, shared what he believed was the secret of Mr. Kennedy’s success as a lawmaker in his nearly 47 years in the Senate.  “People liked him,” Mr. Dodd said in explaining why even some of his harshest ideological critics have spoken so well of him since his death. “He always had a great staff and great ideas, but that only counts for so much in the United States Senate if you lack the respect and admiration of your colleagues. And Teddy earned that respect.”  “We will remember him for the largeness of his spirit,” Mr. Dodd said, “the depth of his passion, his persistence in the face of adversity and the breadth of his achievements.”  Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said he and Mr. Kennedy had been an “odd couple” in the Senate who had nonetheless worked together on some important bills, including one establishing a nationwide children’s health insurance program.  But in describing their differences, Mr. Hatch did introduce a somewhat uncomfortable note. He said he was a conservative Mormon, while Mr. Kennedy was “liberal in his politics and liberal in his lifestyle, at least until he met Vicki,” a reference to Victoria Reggie, whom Mr. Kennedy married in 1992. “Their marriage in many respects saved Teddy,” Mr. Hatch said.  Mr. Hatch also spoke of Mr. Kennedy’s blowing cigar smoke in his face at contentious committee meetings and referred to an evening when Mr. Kennedy, “feeling no pain,” agreed to speak to 200 Mormon missionaries in Boston. The next morning, Mr. Hatch said, Mr. Kennedy called and asked what else he had agreed to.  Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, told a little-known story about Mr. Kennedy’s attendance at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995. With the service concluded and camera crews gone, Mr. Patrick said, Mr. Kennedy spread soil on Mr. Rabin’s grave that he had gathered from the graves of his brothers Robert and John at Arlington National Cemetery.  “No publicity,” Mr. Patrick said, “just a good man doing a sweet thing.”  Among the several hundred in attendance were former Vice President Walter F. Mondale; Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House; Maria Shriver and her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California; former Senator John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth; Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the Supreme Court, a former Kennedy aide; and the actress Lauren Bacall.  The memorial service was televised locally and on some cable outlets but was open only to those with tickets. Earlier, more than 20,000 people filed by Mr. Kennedy’s bier as he lay in repose at the Kennedy library, many having waited in line for hours. Family members, including Mr. Kennedy’s wife and his only surviving sibling, Jean Kennedy Smith, spent several hours accepting condolences from the public.  The Rev. Jesse Jackson was among those who stopped by the Kennedy library on Friday, several hours before he attended the evening service. Mr. Jackson noted that Edward Kennedy was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to reach old age.  “His brothers, Dr. King, they died in trauma,” Mr. Jackson said. Referring to Mr. Kennedy’s diagnosis 15 months ago, he added, “In a way, he had a chance over the past year to write his own eulogy, his own last chapter.”  An article on Saturday about a memorial service for Senator Edward M. Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum erroneously attributed a distinction to the senator’s nephew Joseph P. Kennedy II, who spoke at the event. He is the second eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, not the eldest. (Kathleen Hartington Kennedy is the eldest.)  A previous version of this article stated that Joseph P. Kennedy II was the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy. He is the second eldest, after Kathleen.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: With Quiet Tears but Also Laughter, Mourners Bid Farewell to Kennedy. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Senator Edward M. Kennedy was remembered as a public servant, a statesman, a raconteur and a family man.