The kindest, most cheerful, most optimistic person -- Funeral Mass for Sargent Shriver at Potomac, MD today

Brett Zongker, reporter who filed the story = published in the DailyRecord dot-com
POTOMAC, Md. (AP) — Notable figures including


Caroline Kennedy arrived Saturday for the funeral

Mass honoring R. Sargent Shriver, which was being

held at the Shrivers' church near the family's home

outside Washington.

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy,

arrived with her children and other members of the

Kennedy family as people mingled in the sanctuary

of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac, Md. About

800 invited guests were expected to fill the church's

sanctuary, with space for about 140 people in an

overflow area.

Glen Hansard, frontman for the Irish group The

Frames, sang to piano and violin music as guests

entered the church.

Shriver — the man known as "Sarge" who married

Eunice Kennedy Shriver and was the brother-in-law

of John F. Kennedy and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy —

was to be honored by several speakers. His

daughter, former NBC reporter Maria Shriver, Vice

President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton

gave eulogies.

Sargent Shriver died Tuesday (Jan. 18, 2011) at age 95. He helped

John F. Kennedy fulfill a campaign promise by

starting the Peace Corps, which Shriver built into a

lasting international institution. He later led

President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, part of

the president's vision for his "Great Society."

At a wake held Friday, former South Dakota Sen.

George McGovern called Shriver "the kindest, most

cheerful, most optimistic person I knew in 50 years

of public life." McGovern ran for president in 1972,

with Shriver as his running mate.