By WGGB Staff

SOUTHAMPTON, Mass. (WGGB) -- Tragedy has long followed the Kennedy family. In 1964, the eyes of the world were focused on Western Massachusetts, when tragedy struck once again as a plane carrying the late Sen. Edward Kennedy crashed.

Less than seven months after the assassination of his brother John, Kennedy nearly lost his own life. On June 19, 1964, Kennedy, along with Indiana Senator Birch Baye and his wife Marvella were on their way from Washington D.C. to the state Democratic convention in West Springfield. It was a hot, humid and very foggy night. Kennedy's small plane was circling Barnes Airport in Westfield waiting for clearance to land when it clipped trees in an apple orchard in Southampton and went down.

Then Channel 40 reporter Gary Garrison was the first to report from Northampton's Cooley Dickinson Hospital where Kennedy was taken by ambulance. Durham Caldwell was news director then and still clearly remembers that night.

The plane's pilot and an assistant to Kennedy were both killed in the crash. Kennedy suffered a broken back, and he spent weeks in Cooley Dickinson Hospital and went through months of recuperation and therapy in Boston.

He was running for his first full term in the senate and campaigned from his hospital bed at the time. He was re-elected, and in January of 1965, he walked into the capitol with his brother Bobby, the newly elected senator from New York.