Kennedy's Personal Touch
Michael Johnson was a Capitol Hill paperboy in 1966 when a young Senator Kennedy made him a proposition.
"I was a little rough around the edges as a kid and he sort of picked up on that," said Johnson, "and he said, 'look why don't you bring me your report card and let me see your report card every semester - and for every "A" you get I will give you a dollar.'"
Johnson earned so many A's, that he got into an Ivy League university, Cornell.
Today, Johnson heads up the Senate's emergency preparedness efforts.
Remembering Kennedy, Johnson said, "he would just literally be there looking at my report card or saying, 'now, what about this "C" here? Now you got get this up here, Mike. You know this is not, we need work on this one.'"
Kennedy, the Senate's most famous member, was also the most approachable - a fact that's both accepted and marveled at on Capitol Hill, reports CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes .
Bertie Bowman has worked on Capitol Hill for 60 years, and met Kennedy in 1962. He was there when Kennedy arrived, and helped move him into his new office.
"I introduced myself and he did remember. I was surprised when I saw him again: 'Bertie,' he said. He didn't forget," said Bowman.
Kennedy never forgot a name.
Senate historian Donald Ritchie said, "Politics were his profession as well as his life. And a really good politician remembers names and faces."
But after bumping into Kennedy for 13 years, tour guide Martha Gabriel is convinced politics was only part of it.
"He was just personable, he just had something that came out of him that just loved people. And I was drawn by that," she said.
Johnson said, "He didn't distinguish whether you were President, Vice President versus his newspaper boy. He would literally have an interest in all the people in the circles of his life."
For those lucky enough to be in those circles, it could literally be a life changer.
Read more stories on Sen. Kennedy's life and death at CBSNews.com:
CBS News Special: Ted Kennedy - The Last Brother
Kennedy To Be Missed in Health Care Fight
Kennedy Did His Life's Work Until the End
Kennedy's Bad Boy Days
Who Is Heir to Kennedy's Liberal Legacy?
