"CROWDS PILGRIMAGE TO ARLINGTON CEMETERY"

40,000 EXPECTED TO PAY RESPECTS AT JFK'S GRAVESITE TODAY 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 30, 1963, "crowds continued their pilgrimages into Arlington Cemetery*...to view the flower-banked grave of President John F. Kennedy."

Five hundred people gathered in the cold outside the Cemetery Gate before it was opened at 8 a.m.  A total of 40,000 were expected to visit the late President's gravesite before closing.

One visitor, The Evening Star reports, Frank Nagy of Bridgeport, Connecticut, rode his bicycle on the last leg of his journey (Philadelphia to Arlington) arriving at the cemetery in the early morning hours.

*JFK's graveside service began at 3 p.m. on Nov 25, 1963.  The initial plot, surrounded by a white picket fence, was 20 by 30 feet & included The Eternal Flame which Mrs. Kennedy, RFK & EMK lit at the closing of the service.  Three years later 16 million people had visited.  

A new memorial gravesite was constructed 1965-1967.  Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was  buried beside JFK while RFK & EMK are buried nearby.

SOURCES

"Crowds in Wind, Cold Visit Kennedy's Grave," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., November 30, 1963, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

"President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Gravesite," Arlington National Cemetery, www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/

 

 

Gravesite of President John F. Kennedy

Arlington National Cemetery

Photos by John White (2016)

 

"ONE OF TWO PRESIDENTS BURIED AT ARLINGTON"

JFK'S REMAINS REINTERRED IN PRIVATE CEREMONY

Arlington, Virginia (JFK+50) On March 14, 1967, the remains of President John F. Kennedy and two Kennedy children who died at birth were reinterred in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

The JFK Memorial*, which took two years to complete, replaced the temporary grave of the 35th President of the United States.  The temporary plot, 20 by 30 feet, was surrounded by a white picket fence.

The new gravesite includes irregular Cape Cod granite flagstones set around the graves.  The stones were quarried near the Kennedy compound 150 years before.  A new eternal flame was also installed set in the center of a five foot circular granite stone. 

In the three years following JFK's death, 16 million people visited the gravesite necessitating the construction of a permanent memorial. 

Only one other POTUS is interred at Arlington, William Howard Taft.  

*The JFK Memorial, 3.2 acres in size, includes Lot 45, Section 30 located 20' East of the temporary gravesite of 11-25-63.  The Memorial was designed by John Carl Warnecke.

The JFK Gravesite, now closed due to COVID-19, is scheduled to re-open to the public on Oct 3, 2021.

SOURCES

"President John F. Kennedy Gravesite," Arlington National Cemetery, www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/

"President Kennedy's Grave in Arlington National Cemetery," www.jfklibrary.org/ 

 

 

John F. Kennedy Gravesite

Arlington National Cemetery

Photos by John White (April 2016)

 

 

ONE OF THE LAST THINGS DONE FOR JFK

JACQUELINE KENNEDY VISITS JFK GRAVE AT ARLINGTON

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago, November 28, 1963, former First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy visited the grave of her late husband, the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Mrs. Kennedy, wearing a black dress, was accompanied by JFK aide Lawrence O'Brien and press secretary Pierre Salinger along with an array of military officers.

The original grave of President Kennedy was dug on Sunday, November 24, 1963 by Clifton L. Pollard*.  In 1967, four years later, Mr. Pollard would dig another grave nearby for JFK because the crowds were larger than expected and Mrs. Kennedy wanted a permanent eternal flame installed as a memorial to her husband.

Mr. Pollard, who admired President Kennedy, was quoted as saying..."It's an honor for me to be here."

He later added...

"It felt good to be able to do something for the president, one of the last things ever done for him."

*Clifton Leon Pollard was born in Pittsburgh, PA, the son of a coal miner, and graduated from Hoffman-Boston school.  CLP served in the US Army in Burma & India during WWII.  

CLP dug graves in Arlington National Cemetery for more than 30 years.  He retired in 1980 after suffering a stroke.  He died in 1992 & was buried in Arlington National Cemetery just 100 steps from JFK's gravesite.

SOURCES

"Arlington caretaker Clifton Pollard:  It was 'an honor' to prepare JFK's grave" by T. Rees Shapiro and Emily Langer, November 23, 2013, www.washingtonpost.com/

"The Man Who Dug JFK's Grave, Twice", by Kat Eschner, March 14, 1917, SMART NEWS, www.smithsonianmag.com/

Mrs. Kennedy & children 

visit JFK's grave

May 29, 1965

Photo by US Army

Corps of Engineers

IT WAS TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT WE GROW OLD TOGETHER

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2193

REFLECTIONS ON "JACKIE": PART XVIII

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) JFK+50 begins the year 2017 with a review of "Jackie" starring Natalie Portman.  "Jackie" is a Fox Searchlight Pictures film directed by Pablo Larrain.

The screenplay was written by Noah Oppenheim.  Released on December 2, 2016, the movie has an "R" rating and lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes.

The scene is in the living room at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis.  The Journalist is speaking into a telephone.  He says...

"Mrs. Kennedy has expressed her desire to re-inter the bodies of the two children they lost to rest alongside their father.*

She wants them to always remember for one brief shining moment there was a...Camelot."

The Journalist hangs up.

The next scene goes back to a park outside Washington, D.C.  It is dusk.  Jackie is talking with the Priest.

Jackie says...

"(The Journalist) wrote down every word.  Its being reprinted all over the world.  Maybe that's what they'll all believe now.  Camelot.

People like to believe in fairy tales."

The Priest asks....

"Do you think you've done him justice?"

Jackie answers...

"I believe the characters we read about...end up being more real than the men (we) stand beside...

I should have guessed it was too much to ask that we grow old together...(and) see our children grow up."

*The first child named Arabella was stillborn in 1956.  She did not receive a birth certificate or official name.  Originally buried in Brookline, Massachusetts, her gravestone bears the one word "Daughter."

The second child was Patrick Bouvier Kennedy born prematurely on August 7 & died on August 9, 1963.  Patrick was also originally buried in Brookline, Massachusetts where the President had said "He's seems so alone here."

SOURCES

"Jackie-Screenplay," by Script Pipeline, www.scriptpipeline.com/

"Kennedy Memorials at Arlington National Cemetery," D.C. by Foot, www.freetoursbyfoot.com/

"Who is buried next to President John F. Kennedy at Arlington cemetery," www.answers.com/

Kennedy Memorial

JFK, JBK, AK & PBK
Arlington National Cemetery
Photo by John White (2016)

WELCOME TO ARLINGTON MRS. KENNEDY

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2182

REFLECTIONS ON "JACKIE": PART VII

Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) JFK+50 begins the year 2017 with a review of "Jackie" starring Natalie Portman.  "Jackie" is a Fox Searchlight Pictures film directed by Pablo Larrain.

The screenplay was written by Noah Oppenheim.  Released on December 2, 2016, the movie has an "R" rating and lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Moving forward in the film to a scene at Arlington National Cemetery.  The weather is rainy and misty.  A motorcade of black Lincolns pulls to a stop. Jackie steps out under umbrellas with Bobby and (Bill) Walton.  The cemetery's superintendent, John Metzler* says...

"Welcome to Arlington, Mrs. Kennedy."

After checking out a couple of potential grave sites, Mr. Metzler says...

"The third option is down...at the base of the hill."

Jackie walks out from under an umbrella into the rain...drawn toward the hill.

Bobby asks,

"Where are we going?"

Jackie answers,

"He can't just be buried anywhere.  He deserves more."

In front of the Robert E. Lee Mansion**, Mr. Metzler hands Bill Walton a wooden stake who then drives it into the ground in the center of the hill.  Jackie pulls out the stake, walks a few feet to the right and drives it back into the ground.

It is settled.

*John "Jack" C. Metzler, Sr. (1909-1990) was a Sgt. in WWII & served as superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery from 1952-1972.  He nearly doubled the size of the cemetery during his tenure adding 190 acres to the original 200.  

JCM played a major role in the selection process of the JFK gravesite & after the burial presented Mrs. Kennedy the folded interment flag from JFK's coffin.  Jack's son John C. Metzler, Jr.was ANC superintendent from 1991 to 2010.

**Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, a.k.a. Custis-Lee Mansion is a Greek revival style home adorned with imposing Athenian columns once owned by General Lee.  It was built in 1803 on the order of George Washington Parke Custis, the only grandson of Martha Custis Washington.

JFK+50 NOTE

The movie does not include the contributions of Sargent Shriver and Robert McNamara in the gravesite selection process.  Sarge, Peace Corps director, was put in charge of the funeral arrangements and it was he who contacted Superintendent Metzler about possible burial at ANC.

Secretary of Defense Bob McNamara contacted Metzler to arrange a tour of potential burial locations.  Three plots were considered, one near the mast of the USS Maine and another at Dewey Circle.  Bob Kennedy saw the third location below the Lee Mansion as "ideal" and Jackie agreed.

Their choice was enhanced when National Park Service employee Paul Fugua recalled JFK's visit to Arlington on March 3, 1963 when the President stood on the hill and said, "I could stay here forever."

SOURCES

"Jackie-Screenplay," by Script Pipeline, www.scriptpipeline.com/

"President John Fitzgerald Kennedy Gravesite," Arlington National Cemetery, www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington, Virginia

Photos by John White (2016)

DAY OF MUFFLED DRUMS

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1777

JFK LAID TO REST 52 YEARS AGO

Arlington, Virginia (JFK+50) Fifty-two years ago today, Monday, November 25, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was laid to rest at the National Cemetery here in Arlington.

The National Day of Mourning proclaimed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, began just after 10 a.m. when JFK's casket was removed from the Capitol Rotunda by a military honor guard and placed on a horse drawn caisson.

The caisson was followed by a sailor bearing the Flag of the President of the United States and by a riderless horse with boots turned backward in the stirrups.  The military procession marched slowly to the beat of muffled drums.

From the White House, the procession made its way to nearby Saint Matthew's Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue where a Low Mass was conducted by the Archbishop of Boston and Kennedy family friend, Richard Cardinal Cushing.

As the President's flag-draped casket was moved out of the cathedral and placed back on the caisson, John F. Kennedy, Jr., dressed in blue, raised his right hand in a soldier's salute in honor of his dad.

The procession continued past the Lincoln Memorial and across the bridge to Arlington National Cemetery.  There, on the hill just below the Custis-Lee Mansion, the body of the 35th President of the United States reached it's final resting place.

Mrs. Kennedy, Robert and Ted Kennedy together lit the Eternal Flame on the grave.  Fifty-two year later its' light continues to remind us of our Nation's loss.

The Eternal Flame

 Arlington National Cemetery

 Photo by WKnight94

JACK RUBY FOUND GUILTY

JACK RUBY FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER OF OSWALD 50 YEARS AGO 

Dallas, Texas (JFK+50) Fifty years ago today, March 14, 1964, Jack Rubenstein, a.k.a., Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by electrocution.

It took the jury only 2 hours and 20 minutes to render the verdict.

Just as his shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas City Jail on November 24, 1963 was televised live, so was the announcement of his guilty verdict.

Ruby, a nightclub owner in Dallas and friend of many Dallas police officers, claimed he shot Oswald to prevent Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy from having to return to Dallas for a trial.

In October 1966, Ruby's death sentence was reversed but while awaiting a new trial, he died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on January 3, 1967,  of lung cancer. 

JFK SENDS OUT MEMO ON AGE DISCRIMINATION

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty one years ago today, March 14, 1963, President John F. Kennedy sent a memorandum to the heads of all agencies of the federal government restating his policy opposing age discrimination in hiring practices.

JFK wrote in the memo:

"Personal actions should be based...solely on the ability of candidates to meet qualification requirements and physical standards of the position to be filled."

 JFK and Herbert Hoover

JFK's REMAINS RE-INTERRED IN ARLINGTON

Arlington, Virginia (JFK+50) Forty seven years ago today, March 14, 1967, the remains of the 35th President of the United States,  John F. Kennedy, were re-interred in a private ceremony at The National Cemetery here in Arlington.

The process began at 6:19 and was completed at 9:00 in the evening.

The JFK grave memorial replacing the temporary grave site had taken more than two years to build.

The bodies of two Kennedy children who died at birth were also buried in the new grave site.

A new, improved eternal flame was installed and the graves were surrounded by Cape Cod granite flagstones.

JFK Memorial Grave site, 

Arlington National Cemetery