Nov. 25, 1963 - Federal, state and local officials, kings, queens, princes and prime ministers, and just plain Americans today helped lay John Fitzgerald Kennedy to rest. The final resting place of the assassinated 35th President of the United States was on an open slope among the dead of the nation’s wars at Arlington National Cemetery, within sight of the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. Kennedy’s body was carried from the Capitol to St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Cathedral for a requiem mass. From there, in a cortege, it was taken to the cemetery. During the day, a million people stood in the streets to watch Mr. Kennedy’s last passage. Across the land, millions more saw the solemn ceremonies on television. At the pontifical low mass said by Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston, and following the caisson bearing Mr. Kennedy’s body to his grave were notable figures — among them President Johnson, President de Gaulle of France, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, King Baudouin of the Belgians, Queen Frederika of the Hellenes, and Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. As the caisson reached the graveside, a flight of 50 jet planes thundered overhead — one representing each state of the Union Mr. Kennedy often called “the Great Republic.” The jets were followed by Air Force One, the President’s personal plane. Cardinal Cushing repeated the ancient words of the Roman Catholic graveside service, interpolating the phrase “this wonderful man, Jack Kennedy.” Cannon boomed the 21-gun salute across the rows upon rows of white stones. President de Gaulle and the other military men came to the salute. Then three riflemen fired three sharp volleys into the arching sky. Sergeant Keith Clark, an Army bugler, sounded the clear, melancholy lament of taps across the cemetery. The eight body bearers who had placed Mr. Kennedy’s coffin above his open grave folded the flat that had covered it for three days. It was presented to Mrs. Kennedy, who stood erect and still, her head covered by a long black veil. Then she and Mr. Kennedy’s brothers, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, each touched a flaming wand to an “eternal flame” placed at the head of the grave. Cardinal Cushing cast holy water upon the exposed coffin. Robert Kennedy led Mrs. Kennedy away. After a few steps, she stumbled on broken turf, quickly recovered her stride, and went steadily on. At 3:34 p.m., the coffin was lowered into the earth.
