Nov. 19, 1964 - President Johnson asked the nation today to observe the first anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination with a rededication “to the pursuit of those ideals of human dignity in which he believed.” The anniversary, on Sunday, will be marked across the land by special church services, some of them interfaith services. President and Mrs. Johnson are to attend a memorial service in Austin, Tex. Members of the Kennedy family are to attend a memorial mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington.
Plans for Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, the President’s widow, have not been announced definitely, but indications are that she will remain in seclusion. From dawn to dusk, religious and lay groups from near and far will pause briefly at Mr. Kennedy’s grave at the Arlington National Cemetery to place wreaths and hold prayer services.
St. Matthew’s Church was the scene of funeral rites for the President. The low mass, at 9 a.m., will be said by the Rev. Francis Cavanaugh, former president of the University of Notre Dame.
The memorial service the Johnsons are to attend will be an interdenominational one, at 2 p.m. at the University Methodist Church in Austin.
Mr. Johnson read his proclamation in the White House Cabinet Room as he accepted a bronze bust of Mr. Kennedy. The bust was commissioned by the late President’s three military aides as a gift to Mrs. Kennedy. It will be moved to the Kennedy Memorial Library in Cambridge, Mass., when that institution is completed.
Before reading his proclamation, Mr. Johnson told a small group in the Cabinet Room, “In his thousand days of our leadership, President Kennedy made decisions which will be remembered and respected for a thousand years.”
Mrs. Eunice Shriver, a sister of the late President, represented the Kennedy family at the ceremony.
Mr. Johnson recalled that Mr. Kennedy had placed in the Cabinet Room a bust of Abraham Lincoln. The President said it could be said of Mr. Kennedy as it had been said of Lincoln, “He belongs to the ages.”
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