Nov. 22, 1964 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, slain by an assassin’s bullet one year ago, was remembered today at his grave with flowers and prayers.
Forty thousand persons, their waiting lines black against the Virginia hillside where he lies, came to Arlington National Cemetery on the first anniversary of that day of national horror, shame, and grief.
The first visitor, at sunrise, was Mrs. Kennedy’s mother.
Mrs. Hugh D. Auchincloss came alone to the burial place to lay a cluster of white rosebuds and jasmine in the name of Jacqueline Kennedy upon the evergreens around the eternal flame. Mrs. Kennedy was in seclusion in New York with her children. The frail bouquet withered and went brown within the hour on the cold hillside.
Senator‐elect Robert F. Kennedy, hatless and coatless in the bitter chill, knelt at the grave to pray after placing one long‐stemmed white carnation on the mound.
Mrs. Sargent Shriver, a sister of President Kennedy, shivering in a light wool suit, brought red roses as Supreme Court justices, Cabinet officers, ambassadors and other members of the Kennedy family watched.
Among the earliest visitors were the two daughters of President Johnson. Each left a yellow rose. With them was Mr. Johnson’s military aide, Maj. Gen. Chester V. Clifton, who bore a huge red, white, and blue wreath. On it was a white card engraved: “The President and Mrs. Johnson.”
Hour after hour, the wreaths were carried to the grave: from the German Government; the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of Wexford County in Ireland; the Secret Service; the sister of Fidel Castro; the class of 1972, Junior High School 104 in New York City.
By dusk, they filled the little square enclosure formed by the white picket fence. On the ground lay the modest tributes from other visitors, who brought small sprays or a single flower in honor of the President.
In Dallas today, Mrs. Marina Oswald, widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy’s assassin, sent word from her hospital room that she “felt very sorry for Mrs. Kennedy and the children.”
Mrs. Oswald entered Doctor’s Hospital last week with a stomach disorder. She was expected to remain four or five more days.
“She was a very sad girl all day,” a hospital spokesman said.
Across the street from Dealey Plaza, the 1,042 inmates of the Dallas County Jail were eating their lunch as 1 o’clock approached. Among them was Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald.
Sheriff Bill Decker said more than half the inmates had paused to pray or stare into space. He said he did not know what Ruby, who is appealing his conviction for murder, had done at that hour.
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