>> we gather today with sadness but with hope ♪ ave maria ♪ >> glor: tonight a final farewell, family, friends, and colleagues celebrate the life of the senator edward kennedy. >> he lifted me up in his strong gentle arms and said something i will never forget. he said, "i know you can do it." >> glor: i'm jeff glor. also tonight, at least a dozen

wildfires in california forcing evacuations. and investigators search for answers in the bizarre california kidnapping case that took 18 years to solve. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with jeff glor. >> glor: and good evening. as he moves toward his final resting place tonight, senator edward kennedy has made the journey from his family home in massachusetts to his political home in washington. hundreds of old friends and colleagues waited for hours at the u.s. capitol so they could say a final good-bye. you are looking at a live picture this evening. we will return there in a moment but we begin our coverage this evening in boston, where president obama was joined by three former presidents, dozens of members of congress, and the kennedy family for a funeral mass. national correspondent jim axelrod is there. jim. >> reporter: jeff, the kennedy family chose this church because

of its special meaning to senator kennedy as a place of hope and optimism. they wanted an uplifting farewell. ted kennedy's casket was met by an honor guard and escorted into the basilica of our laeld of perpetual help, where his widow and children were joined by 1500 mourners. >> we pray for our dear friend and brother, ted kennedy. >> reporter: in many ways, it had all the trappings of a state funeral-- former presidents, senators and cabinet secretaries movie stars, and world-famous musicians. all gathered in an ornate church a eulogy from the sitting president. >> he was given the gift of time that his brothers were not and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow. >> reporter: but when ted kennedy's grandchildren offered the prayer of the faithful, using their grant pa's own

words. >> for my grandfathers brave promise last summer that the work begins aa new, the hope rises and again and the dream lives on, we pray to the lord. >> reporter: this grand funeral became a family affair. >> for my grandfathers persist not to outworn values will but to old values that will never wear out, that the poor may be out of political fashion but they're never without human need. >> reporter: four days of deeply felt emotion here in boston reached its high point when his two sons rose to remember. >> he was not perfect, far from it. but my father believed in redemption, and he never surrendered, never stopped trying to right wrongs, be they the results of his own failings or of ours. >> reporter: teddy kennedy jr. lost his right leg to cancer when he was 12. a few months later there was a

snowfall. >> my father went to the garage to get the old flexible flyer, and asked me ifimented to go sledding down the steep driveway and i was trying to get used to my new artificial leg and the hill was covered ice and snow, and it wasn't easy for me to walk. i slipped and i fell on the ice, and i started to cry. and i said, "i can't do this." i said. "i'll never be able to climb up that hill." and he lifted me up in his strong, gentle arms, and said something i will never forget. he said, "i know you can do it. there is nothing that you can't do. we're going to climb that hill together, even it takes us all day ♪ you see, my father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable and it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of

my father's greatest lessons. he taught me that nothing is impossible. ( applause ) >> reporter: patrick was his youngest, a congressman from rhode island. >> my cousin joe was a member of congress, and i came to congress. dad finally celebrated saying, "finally, after all these years when someone says who does that damascus kennedy think he is, there's only a one in three chance they're talking about me." ( laughter ) >> reporter: but politics wasn't center stage. patrick recalled the severe asthma that plagued him as a boy and the medication that gave him terrible headaches. >> well, asthma may have posed a challenge to my physical health. it propped up my emotional and mental health because it kept my father by my bedside. my dad was always sure to be within reach of me, and the side effects of the medication meant that he was always holding a cold wet towel on my forehead

until i fell asleep again from my headache. >> reporter: president obama had the last word on the man whose support was critical in his winning the white house. >> the greatest expectations were placed upon ted kennedy's shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became. we do not weep for him today because the prestige attached to his name or his office. we weep because we loved this kind and tender hero. who perce veered through pain and tragedy, not for the sake of ambition or vanity, not for wealth nor power. but only for the people and the country that he loved. >> reporter: politics weren't entirely absent today. ted kennedy jr. said in his eulogy, "my father taught me some of life's toughest lessons, such as how to like republicans." both democrats and republicans

in the church broke up laughing. jeff. >> glor: all right, jim axelrod in boston tonight. jim, thank you very much. as we mentioned, hundreds of friends and colleagues waited at the u.s. capitol as well for hours to say good-bye to the senator who walked the halls of congress for nearly 50 years. nancy cordes is there tonight. nancy, good evening to you. >> reporter: good evening to you jeff. and it's very sweet, just a few moments ago, we saw senator kennedy's wife, vicki, blowing kisses to the thousands of thousands of people who have gathered here for hours at the u.s. capitol in that heat and humidity that washington is famous for in august, just to say good-bye. and now, we see that senator kennedy's son, who is a u.s. representative, is also thanking the crowd of people. all those people that you see on the senate steps of the u.s. capitol are former or current members of senator kennedy's staff, hundreds of them. you know, when you serve in the senate for 47 years, you amass quite a staff, and the reputation of his staff always

was that they were the best staff at the capitol. also in the crowd, dozens of lawmakers who went to boston this morning for the funeral, then flew back down to washington during recess to say good-bye one last time. originally, this was supposed to be a very brief affair, just a stop at the capitol on the way to arlgton national cemetary, but as you can see, it has grown to much more than that. we heard a very brief prayer from the house chaplain, and then everyone joined together in sing "america the beautiful." from here, the family will get back in the motorcade, and the hearse will make its way to arlington national cemetary for a sunset burial. >> glor: as nancy mentioned oa hill in arlington national cemetary near the graves of his brothers, john and robert, ted kennedy will be laid to rest this evening. wyatt andrews reports on how that spot was chosen. wyatt. >> reporter: jeff, good evening.

it has long been ted kennedy's dream to join his brothers jack and bobby here at arlington national cemetary. but the story of how this political family came here to this military cemetery is one that began by accident. the kennedys' appreciation for arlington started when president john kennedy decided to take a random sunday drive. it was march of 1963, eight months before his assassination. >> it was a late day, a late winter day. >> reporter: according to journalist and author robert pool kennedy happened to sdrif to the cemetery and then decided to walk this hill. >> he walked to about where we are. >> reporter: as the president absorbed the view overlooking the lincoln memorial, pool says he foretold his fate. >> first he said, "wouldn't this be a great place for the white house." and the second thing he says is, "so beautiful, i could stay here forever." of course it proved to be, sadly prophetic statement because a

few months later he was dead, and this is where he end up forever. >> reporter: the day after john kennedy was shot, as he lay in the capitol rotunda, jackie kennedy slipped away to visit arlington, finding a spot on that very same kill and on the same straight line facing the lincoln memorial, she decided the president would come here, not to massachusetts. >> she said she wanted him here so that he would belong to the country. >> reporter: what the country saw next had never been seen before on live television, not just a presidential burial, but the precise, dignified ceremonies of an arlington military burial. >> it was the first glimpse that most of the american public had at how special arlington is and how we honor our heroes here. >> reporter: during that ceremony, jackie passed the president's eternal flames to his brothers, first to bobby, who after his assassination was buried here in 1968, and then to

ted. jackie herself would come to rest here in 1994. but after kennedy's internment, military requests for burial here almost doubled. visits by tourists quadrupled, ask arlington, which was always a place of high honor, became a place of national communion. to get to the kennedy gravesite millions of people every year pass by the hundreds of thousands of war heroes who'd come before, and no one understood that better than senator edward kennedy. >> each and every time you could see in his eye, in his words that he truly knew what arlington meant. >> reporter: now ted kennedy is just hours away from getting his last request fulfilled of joining husband brothers, and it's goingo happen in a spot just down thhill and just steps away from where john kennedy first wished he could stay here forever. jeff. >> glor: wyatt andrews at

arlington, ted kennedy's final resting place, thank you. and we'll be right back.

>> glor: in california tonight, firefighters are battling a dozen wildfires. the worst covers almost 12 square miles near los angeles. haddy kaufman is there. >> reporter: the winds have begun to gust which is going to make it more difficult for firefighters who are already battling scorching temperatures, steep terrain and thick brush 30 feet tall. overnight the station fire north

of los angeles exploded. homeowners were forced to flee. >> he heard this huge explosion, which really scared us, so we decided it was time to leave. >> reporter: evacuations intensified today. >> i'm loading you want car. we have to evacuate. mandatory evacuation now. >> reporter: families had to decide what to take and what to leave behind. in northern california, some didn't have that luxury. this couple lost their home. >> i just thank god that i'm still here. >> reporter: 12 fires are ablaze in california, four of them major. more than 12,000 cakers have been consumed, most in southern california, bone dry after years of drought. steep slopes that haven't burned in half a century are hungry to go up in flames, making the station fire extremely volatile. >> do not risk yaur life to save your home. save your life and let the public safety save your home. >> get out of there! >> reporter: if burning neighborhoods weren't bad enough the fire is climbing up mount

wilson, the critical site of l.a.'s broadcast towers. >> if this goes out, this news conference is done because we won't have any telecommunications. >> reporter: this community gather as the fires burned but soon were ordered out. >> this is a shocker but we're as ready as we're going to be, i guess. >> reporter: that is downtown los angeles, which gives you some idea just how close this very large fire is to the city. jeff. >> glor: hattie kaufman in los angeles tonight. thank you. police at a searched the california home of a man charged in the kidnapping of a young girl 18 years ago looking for evidence possibly linking him to other crimes. but anger is growing tonight that stole opportunities were missed. john blackstone is following this case from antok. >> reporter: it's now clear how often phillip gareedo and his wife, nancy, fooled police and parole officers leaving jaycee

dugard captive for 18 years. gareedo was apparently so confident, he took jaycee out of the compound to help in his printing business. a real estate agent recognized her as the young woman who work wad gareedo. >> yes, that's her. >> reporter: there were warning signs about gareedo, sentenced to 50 years for kidnap and rape but paroled after 10. even his father saw him as deeply troubled, blaming a head injury and drug use. >> he's crazy. he's out of his head. >> reporter: when a neighbor complained about what was happening in garrido's backyard, the department who respond never looked behind the house. not until garrido showed up berkeley with the two girls he fathered with jaycee abouted a law enforcement officer become suspicious jirbt one thing we noticed was the color of the two girls. they were extremely pale. >> reporter: that started the unraveling of a long mystery, freedom for jaycee but not the end of her ordeal.

>> it takes a lot longer to fix a person than to ruin a person. you can ruin a person in a half an hour. she had 18 years of it. >> reporter: looking back the missed opportunities to discover this secret backyard prison make the tragic story of jaycee dugard's kidnapping all the more disturbing. john blackstone, cbs news, antok california. >> glor: just ahead on tonight's cbs evening news. a look at ted kennedy in our "weekend journal."

>> glor: in his eulogy for ted kennedy, president obama said kennedy was the baby of the family who became the patriarch. that is the focus of tonight's "weekend journal." patriarch, it turned out, was a role he heartily embraced. >> you run that way, all right? you can run that way as a matter of fact you can. >> reporter: besides his three children and two stepchildren, ted kennedy surrogate father to the kid left behind by i had slain brothers. robert kennedy had 11. >> every single one of my brothers and sisters needed a father, and we gained one through uncle teddy. for so many of us, we just needed someone to hang on to and teddy was always there. >> glor: always there for every

baptism, graduation, and wedding. he walked one of president's john kennedy's two children, caroline, down the aisle. >> he showed us how to keep going no matter how hard things were, to love each other, no matter how mad we got, and keep working for what we believe in. he convinced us that we could ace the next test, make the varsity team, win the next race, whether it was sailing or politics. >> reporter: after caroline's wedding, her mother, jacqueline, wrote ted a poignant letter which cbs news correspondent gloria borja recounted. >> you, the care-free youngest brother fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. everyone is going to make it because you were always there with your love. jackie. >> well, that's about as nice as you can get. >> america is better because of the leadership of edward kennedy. >> glor: when john kennedy jr. was lost in a plane crash 10 years ago, senator kennedy took charge and took care of caroline.

>> ted kennedy flew to her house on long island, spent an entire day with her, and even went out and played basketball with her kids. >> glor: in all he had 28 nephews and nieces and there were 60 kids who called him "great-uncle teddy." >> he had the skills to keep everything glued together, even though want family had been bessette by such awful circumstances over the decades. >> reporter: the kennedys say when word of his death came tuesday they lost "the irreplaceable senator of their large, expended family." >> it was a beautiful summer night, the moon had set, there was no wind. the sea was calm and the stars were out. i looked up and there was this one star hanging low in the sky that was just bigger than all the rest and brighter than all the rest with a twinkle and a sparkle louder than all the others. i know it was jupiter, but it was acting a lot like teddy. >> glor: and when we come back in just a moment, more on the

procession taking place in washington right now.

>> glore: and we leave you tonight with a last look at today's celebration of the life of edward kennedy.

i'm jeff glor, cbs news in new york. good night. ♪ ♪ ♪ america, america god shed his grace on thee and crown thimerosol good with brotherhood from sea to shining say ♪ captioning sponsored by cbs

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