Theodore C. Sorensen, 82, Kennedy Counselor, Dies

[The Straight Story]

Theodore C. Sorensen, 82, Kennedy Counselor, Dies


Theodore C. Sorensen, who was a close adviser and counselor to John F. Kennedy for 11 years, writing words and giving voice to ideas that shaped the president’s image and legacy, died Sunday in New York. He was 82 and lived in Manhattan.

He died after complications from a stroke he suffered a week ago, according to his wife, Gillian Sorensen. A previous stroke, in 2001, had taken away much of his eyesight.

Mr. Sorensen said he suspected 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.

True, 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 as he helped hone and polish that speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/us/01sorensen.html?_r=1&hp

[malaise]

1. Just saw this on the GEM$NBC website

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39939573/ns/politics-more_politics/

[H2O Man]

2. A sad day.

His 1965 book "Kennedy" should be read with his 2008 "Counselor."