State funeral of John F. Kennedy
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The state funeral of John F. Kennedy took place during the three days that followed his assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
The body of President Kennedy was brought back to Washington, D.C. and placed in the East Room of the White House for 24 hours. On the Sunday after the assassination, his coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the U.S. Capitol to lie in state. Throughout the day and night, hundreds of thousands lined up to view the guarded casket. Representatives from over 90 countries attended the state funeral on Monday, November 25. After the Requiem Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral, the late president was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
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[edit] Preparations for the state funeral
After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, his body was flown back to Washington, D.C.. At the same time, military authorities started planning his state funeral. Officials at the Military District of Washington (MDW) planned the funeral, working with the president's brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, also director of the peace corps, and an aide to the president. Because Kennedy had no funeral plan in place, much of the planning rested with the commanding general of the MDW (CG MDW), Army Major General Philip C. Wehle.
House Speaker John W. McCormack, who became the first in succession for the Presidency upon the death of Kennedy and the swearing in of Johnson, said that the president's body would be brought back to the White House to lie in the East Room the following day and then taken to the Capitol to lie in state in the Rotunda all day Sunday.
The day after the assassination, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, issued Presidential Proclamation 3561, declaring Monday to be a national day of mourning, and only essential emergency workers to be at their posts.
[edit] White House Repose
After the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Kennedy's body was prepared for burial by embalmers from Gawler's Funeral Home in Washington, who performed the embalming and cosmetic restoration procedures at Bethesda, as opposed to the funeral home. Restorative procedures included the application of a curved mesh to replace the missing portion of Kennedy's head, and the application of hair thatches over the scalp.
The body of President Kennedy was returned to the White House at nearly 04:30 a.m., Saturday, November 23. After being placed in the East Room, Mrs. Kennedy ordered the casket open to inspect the embalmer's work, and after seeing the embalmed image, she declared that the casket would be kept closed for the duration of the viewing and funeral.
Kennedy's casket remained in the East Room for 24 hours, as he lay in repose; (then, the term "lying in repose" meant private, as opposed to a public lying in state). The motorcade bearing the remains was met by a Marine honor guard. Jacqueline Kennedy, still wearing the bloodstained raspberry-colored suit she wore in Dallas, had refused to leave the side of her husband's body since his death. She requested that two Catholic priests remain with the body until the official funeral. A call was made to the Catholic University of America and Msgr. Robert Paul Mohan and Fr. Gilbert Hartke, two prominent Washington, D.C. priests were immediately dispatched for the task. Only after his casket was placed in the East Room, now decorated with black crepe, did she retire to her private quarters. She consulted with her staff as to proper funeral arrangements, and reviewed a book about the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
A private Mass was said at 10:30 a.m.. After that, other family members, friends, and other government officials came to mourn. There were specified times for members of the family, top officials in the Executive Branch, the Supreme Court, members of Congress, and members of the diplomatic corps to come to the White House to pay their respects.
Kennedy lay where, nearly one hundred years earlier, Lincoln had lain. An honor guard stood vigil over his remains. The catafalque upon which the remains rested was the same one used in 1958 during the funerals of the Unknown Soldiers from the Korean War and World War II at Arlington.
[edit] Lying in state
On Sunday afternoon about 300,000 people watched a horse-drawn caisson, which had borne the body of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Unknown Soldier, carry Kennedy's flag-covered mahogany casket down the White House drive, past parallel rows of soldiers bearing the flags of the 50 states of the Union, then along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol Rotunda to lie in state. The only sounds on Pennsylvania Avenue as the cortège made its way to the Capitol were the sounds of the muffled drums and the clacking of horses' hooves.
The widow, holding her two children, one in each hand, led the public mourning for the country. In the rotunda, Mrs. Kennedy and her daughter Caroline knelt beside the casket, which rested on the Lincoln catafalque. Three-year-old John Jr. was briefly taken out of the rotunda so as not to disrupt the service. Mrs. Kennedy maintained her composure as her husband was taken to the Capitol to lie in state, as well as during the memorial service.
Brief eulogies were delivered inside the rotunda by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and Speaker McCormack, representing their respective branches of government.
[edit] Public Viewing
In the only public viewing, hundreds of thousands lined up in near-freezing temperatures to view the casket. Over the span of 18 hours, 250,000 people, some waiting for as long as 10 hours in a line that stretched 40 blocks up to 10 persons wide, personally paid their respects as Kennedy's body lay in state. Many of them were weeping when they viewed the bier. Capitol police officers politely reminded mourners to keep moving along in two lines that passed on either side of the casket and exited the building on the west side facing the National Mall.
The doors were supposed to close at 9:00 p.m. and reopen for an hour at 9:00 the next morning, However, because of the long lines, police and military authorities decided to keep the doors open until 9:00 a.m. Mrs. Kennedy did not object, because at 9:00 p.m., she and brother-in-law Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy visited the rotunda again.
[edit] Arrival of Dignitaries
As Kennedy lay in state, foreign dignitaries -- including heads of state and government and members of royal families -- started to converge on Washington to attend the state funeral on Monday. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and other State Department personnel went out to both of Washington's commercial airports, to personally greet foreign dignitaries.
Some of the dignitaries that arrived on Sunday to attend the funeral included French President Charles de Gaulle, West German President Heinrich Lübke, The Duke of Edinburgh representing Queen Elizabeth II, British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Irish President Éamon de Valera, and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Many of the heads of state and government led delegations. For example, Lübke was accompanied by Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder, Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel, and West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. De Valera was accompanied by External Affairs Minister Frank Aiken, and his son, Major Vivian De Valera. Queen Frederika of Greece, and King Baudouin I of the Belgians were just some of the other members of royalty attending. Some police officials later said that it was the biggest security nightmare they ever faced.
The Soviet Union was the only communist nation to send a representative, First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan. There was no representation from Communist China, with which the U.S. did not maintain relations due to its diplomatic ties with Nationalist China, or Cuba, whose leader, Fidel Castro, accused Kennedy for taking the world "to the brink of nuclear war," and said that the administration was "characterized by hostile and implacable policies toward us. Cuba was a victim of attacks of all kinds that cost blood."
[edit] Funeral
As people were viewing the casket, military authorities held meetings at the White House, at MDW headquarters, and at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday's events. First, they decided that the public viewing should end at 09:00 EST.
Unlike Sunday's procession, which was led by only the muffled drum corps, Monday's was expanded to include other military units. Military officials also agreed on what the widowed Mrs. Kennedy requested. They included two foreign military units: pipers from the Scottish Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) and a group of 24 Irish cadets. Military officials agreed that the pipers march in the procession, doing so from the White House to St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Cathedral, and that the cadets perform at the gravesite, an an eternal flame at the grave.
Approximately one million people lined the route of the funeral procession, from the Capitol back to the White House, then to St. Matthew's Cathedral, and finally to Arlington National Cemetery. Millions more across America followed the funeral on television. The television audience was particularly high, as virtually the entire nation was at home viewing the proceedings.
At 10:00 a.m., both houses of Congress met to pass resolutions expressing sorrow. In the Senate, Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine laid a single rose on the desk Kennedy occupied when in the Senate.
[edit] Procession to Cathedral
The procession began just before 11:00, when the coffin was carried out of the rotunda and placed on the caisson, which then made its way back to the White House. Most of the music selected for the funeral procession, including "Hail to the Chief" was played at a dirge-like speed.
At the White House, the procession resumed on foot to St. Matthew's Cathedral, led by Kennedy's widow and his two brothers, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy. They walked the same route the widow took quite often with the president when going to Mass at the cathedral.
The two Kennedy children rode in a limousine behind them. The rest of the Kennedy Family, apart from the president's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who was ill, waited at the cathedral.
Not since the funeral of Britain's King Edward VII in 1910, had there been such a large gathering of presidents, prime ministers, and royalty at a state funeral.
In all, 220 foreign dignitaries, including 19 heads of state and government, and members of royal families, from 92 countries, including the Soviet Union, attended the funeral. Most of the dignitaries passed unnoticed, strolling respectfully behind the former first lady and the Kennedy family during the relatively short walk to the cathedral along Connecticut Avenue. As the dignitaries marched, there was a heavy security presence because of concerns for the potential assassination of so many world leaders.
NBC transmitted coverage of the procession from the White House to the cathedral by satellite to twenty-three countries, including Japan and the Soviet Union. However, satellite coverage ended when the coffin went into the cathedral.
The widow, wearing a black veil, and holding the hands of her two children, John Jr., who celebrated his third birthday on the day of his father's funeral, on her left, and Caroline, on her right, led the way up the steps of the cathedral.
[edit] Funeral Mass at cathedral
About 1,200 invited guests attended the funeral Mass in the cathedral. The Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing, celebrated the Pontifical Requiem Mass at the cathedral Kennedy worshipped at often, being a Catholic.
Cardinal Cushing was a close friend of the family who had witnessed and blessed the marriage of Senator Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953. He had also baptized their two children, given the invocation at President Kennedy's inauguration, and officiated at the recent funeral of their infant son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy.
Rather than a formal eulogy, the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, the Most Reverend Philip M. Hannan, decided to read selections from Kennedy's writings and speeches. The readings included several of his addresses that had quoted the Bible, such as this text from Proverbs: "Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and where there is no vision the people perish".
Bishop Hannan concluded his remarks by reading the entire Inaugural Address (the first presidential funeral in which there was a eulogy was that of Lyndon B. Johnson ten years later, in 1973).
As he did during their wedding ten years earlier, Luigi Vena sang Franz Schubert's Ave Maria! after the chant of the offertory. Jacqueline Kennedy had requested it and for a few moments she lost her composure and sobbed as this music filled the cathedral.
[edit] Burial
The casket was borne again by caisson on the final leg to Arlington National Cemetery for burial. Moments after the casket was carried down the front steps of the cathedral, Jacqueline Kennedy whispered to her son, after which he saluted his father's coffin, a gesture captured by the cameras and long remembered. The children were deemed to be too young to attend the final burial service, so this was the point where the children said goodbye to their father.
Virtually everyone else followed the caisson in a long line of black limousines passing by the Lincoln Memorial and crossing the Potomac River. However, many of the military units did not participate in the burial service. They left just after crossing the Potomac.
At the end of the burial service, the widow lit an eternal flame to burn continuously over his grave. At 3:34 p.m. EST, the mahogany casket containing his remains was lowered into the earth. Kennedy thus became only the second president to be buried at Arlington, after William Howard Taft.
[edit] Aftermath
Theodore White, a very close friend of the assassinated president, devoted the entire first chapter of his second book in the Making of the President series, The Making of the President, 1964, to the assassination and funeral, which he covered extensively for Life.
The state funeral has been detailed more than any other in the U.S., both in pictures and words. Scenes from the funeral have been replayed over and over again on television and have been published in books, newspapers, and other publications.
Many of the troops who participated in the funeral also participated in the state funerals of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and another president, Herbert Hoover, in the 12 months that followed the state funeral. The riderless horse in all three was Black Jack.
[edit] External links
- BBC article on Kennedy's funeral
- BBC coverage of the funeral. Commentary by Richard Dimbleby
- Accurate listing of funeral music
- Universal International News: "The World Mourns"
- IMDb listing for the original 1964 documentary "Four Days in November"
- Justice Earl Warren's Eulogy for John F. Kennedy
[edit] References
- United States Army, The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funerals, 1921-1969 Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971.
- White, Theodore H., The Making of the President, 1964, New York: Atheneum, 1965.
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