WASHINGTON >> The late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was among 16 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented Wednesday, 50 years after the death of the award’s founder, President John F. Kennedy.

President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor to Inouye and 15 others, including former President Bill Clinton and iconic talk show host Oprah Winfrey, in a star-studded and often poignant celebration at the White House.

Inouye’s widow, Irene Hirano, accepted the award on behalf of the senator, who died Dec. 17 at age 88.

“He taught all of us that no matter what you look like or where you come from, this country has a place for everybody who’s willing to serve and work hard,” Obama said in presenting the award in the White House’s East Room.

“After being classified as an ‘enemy alien,’ Danny joined a Japanese-American unit that became one of the most decorated in World War II. And as the second-longest-serving senator in American history, he showed a generation of young people — including one kid with a funny name growing up in Hawaii who noticed that there was somebody during some of those hearings in Washington that didn’t look like everybody else, which meant maybe I had a chance to do something important, too,” Obama said.

Inouye was a World War II hero who became the first Japanese-American to serve in Congress, representing the Hawaii from the moment it joined the Union.

“The Senator gave everything in his devotion to Hawaii Nei and our nation, a fact now recognized by two United States Presidents and two of our nation’s highest honors,” Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a statement. “His service was the epitome of valor and the Aloha Spirit.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is given to those who have “made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” according to the White House.

The late Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, Watergate-era Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and country-music legend Loretta Lynn were among the leaders of sports, politics, science and the arts to receive the medal.

In the event Wednesday, Obama also honored Kennedy’s legacy.

“I hope we carry away from this a reminder of what JFK understood to be the essence of the American spirit,” Obama said. “Some of us may be less talented, but we all have the opportunity to serve and to open people’s hearts and minds in our smaller orbits.”

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Anita Kumar, McClatchy Washington Bureau, contributed to this report.