OS ANGELES - She's a very private person who shuns the spotlight, but now the legacy belongs to her alone. So Caroline Kennedy, President Kennedy's only surviving child, came forward last night to commemorate the anniversary of her father's historic nomination here 40 years ago.
''As I look out across this hall and across this country, I know that my father's spirit lives on, and I thank all of you,'' Kennedy told more than 4,000 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. ''Now it is our turn to prove that the New Frontier was not as much a place in time, as it was a timeless call.''
''Now, we are the New Frontier,'' she said.
Kennedy was a child when her father inspired Americans to reach beyond their private space and commit to public service. Ironically, the woman who had counted on her dashing brother to be the Kennedy family's public face has been thrust by yet another family tragedy out of her private life and, last night, onto a very big national stage.
''My guess is, there is a sense in each of the Kennedys that you take up where the last one left off,'' said historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. ''With her brother John gone, Caroline has accepted the mantle that has fallen on her to keep the story alive.''
Kennedy walked on stage to music from ''Camelot.'' When she spoke, delegates sat enthralled. But if her audience expected her to deliver an emotional speech that touched on the personal details of her family's lives, on the tragedies of her father's or brother's deaths, they were disappointed.
Kennedy only inched toward all that, and ever so briefly. Then she quickly veered away, and in a tentative and wooden delivery uncharacteristic of the Kennedys, moved into the safer terrain of issues. Still, the crowd threw up a sea of blue ''Caroline'' signs at every opportunity.
In television interviews yesterday, Kennedy joked that she agreed to speak at her first convention because she could not say no to her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She has always been close to her father's youngest brother, and in introducing him at the convention last night, said, ''He has always been there when we needed him.
''No uncle could be better,'' she said. ''No senator has ever achieved more.''
But the woman many Americans remember as a little girl romping around the Oval Office, or as the brave child who tenderly kissed the flag on her father's casket, had a serious political message to deliver. In good times, Americans must redouble their efforts to help children, the elderly, and the poor, she said, adding that the best way to guarantee that is to elect Al Gore president.
''We need a president who is not afraid of complexity, who believes in an open and tolerant society, and who knows that the world can be made new again - and that president is Al Gore,'' she said.
Friends insisted this was not a tryout for another Kennedy political career. Foremost, Kennedy is devoted to her children - she and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, have three school-age youngsters and live a quiet, family-centered life in Manhattan and eastern Long Island. Trained as a lawyer, though she never practiced law, Kennedy has co-authored two scholarly books on the individual and privacy rights.
In her remarks, which lasted about 10 minutes, Kennedy said the nation had to be vigilant, as her father was, in working to protect civil and human rights.
''If we want a Supreme Court that will protect the freedoms in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the right to privacy, that will keep our personal, financial, and medical information from being up for grabs and will guarantee the right to make our own reproductive decisions, then it is up to us,'' she said.
Kennedy is head of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum Foundation in Boston and is on the panel that selects winners of the Profile in Courage award, which is conferred annually on public officials who act on principle over politics.
''She is a very smart and sincere person who tries to do the right thing while maintaining a very private life,'' said a friend did not want to be identified. ''She is not a public person and has no intention of becoming one.''
Kennedy, who carries herself with the dignity of her mother and has the smile of her father, noted last night that she did have a special kinship with Gore. His parents, Senator Albert Gore Sr. and Pauline, were Washington matchmakers in bringing her parents, John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, together.
''You see, in more ways than one, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the Gore family,'' the 42-year-old Kennedy said.
Most everyone in the Staples Center knew, too, that she probably would not have been on the podium if her brother had not died a year ago in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard. John Kennedy Jr. spoke at the 1988 convention and was on the scene in Chicago in 1996.
''I thank all Americans for making me and John and all our family a part of your families, for reaching out and sustaining us through the good times and the difficult ones and for helping us dream my father's dream,'' Kennedy said.
Kennedy's appearance moved many delegates in the big Los Angeles arena.
''I can't believe she's old enough to be doing this,'' said Kate McKenna, 51, of Syracuse, N.Y. ''I saw her and her brother as little kids. ... It must be very painful and poignant for her to speak, especially so close on the heels of losing her brother.''
Though delegates could muster scant details about her life, many felt they knew her.
''I grew up with the Kennedys,'' said Bill Bryan, 55, of Bowdoinham, Maine. ''I remember the election of Jack, and it was really a wonderful kind of hope. Being Afro-American, I didn't always feel a part of politics.''
''People are pulling for Caroline,'' said Michael Lane, of Dryden, N.Y. ''She speaks to something inside us. It's nostalgia, it's sadness, it's happiness, it's hope for a generation.''
Lane remembers the convention of 1960, when Kennedy's father was nominated, and his assassination and funeral. He remembers hearing when her uncle Robert Kennedy was killed. And when her brother's plane was missing.
''All of a sudden, the nation held its breath for the family again,'' he said. ''I can't think of another family that has that effect on the public.''
Nor is there another family that has the magnetism to attract a crowd or the mystique to lure the paparazzi. At an event Monday in Los Angeles honoring a Profile in Courage winner, Kennedy was swamped by dozens of cameramen jostling to take her picture.
''Let's not forget that this family has been the bread and butter of the newspapers, magazines, and television for almost 40 years,'' said Carl Sferrazzi Anthony, a biographer of first families. ''After her mother died, and now that her brother is gone, the obsession settles on her.''
