KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is still nursing a broken leg but has graduated from crutches to a cane used by generations of the Kennedy family.
Kerry appeared Wednesday at meetings in Malaysia with a wooden, silver-handled cane that he said had belonged to Kennedy family patriarch Joseph Kennedy while he was U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. The cane was passed down to President John F. Kennedy, who used it to deal with back pain, and passed along again to his brother Ted when he broke his back.
This isn’t the first time Kerry has used the Kennedy cane.
Ted Kennedy lent the cane to Kerry twice after knee surgeries. Kennedy’s widow, Vicky, lent it to Kerry again after he broke his leg.