The Kennedy Half-Century (89 page)

1963. Back at Love Field in Dallas, President Kennedy’s staff struggles to load his coffin onto Air Force One. Some seats were removed in the back of the plane to accommodate the fallen leader and his grieving widow and close aides. Mrs. Kennedy is accompanied by Larry O’Brien, a future Democratic National Committee chairman (whose office bugging triggered the Watergate scandal that eventually resulted in President Nixon’s resignation). In a simple tribute, a policeman places his cap over his heart in the background.

1963. The famous photo of President Johnson’s swearing in aboard Air Force One at 2:40
P.M
. LBJ personally arranged his wife Lady Bird on one side and Jackie Kennedy on the other as he was sworn in by Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, personally requested by LBJ for the task. Hughes was the first woman to swear in a president.

1963. President Kennedy’s casket is placed inside a hearse after Air Force One’s landing at Andrews Air Force Base just before 6
p
.
m
. EST on November 22, 1963. Mrs. Kennedy, still dressed in the same pink outfit and accompanied by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, prepares to accompany the body to the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

2012. The Dallas jail cell that housed Lee Harvey Oswald for the final two days of his life. This facility is now abandoned.

1963. Bob Jackson received a Pulitzer Prize for this historic photo of Jack Ruby firing a single, deadly shot into Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963. This was the first live televised murder in American history. Ruby was later sentenced to death, though he died of cancer before the execution could be carried out. The Dallas police officer attempting to pull Oswald away from Ruby’s gun is Jim Leavelle, who was also stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

1963. In perhaps the most memorable moment of the weekend, John F. Kennedy, Jr. salutes his father’s coffin. The small boy’s moving gesture brought millions to tears and reminded Americans of the very personal tragedy for a young family.

1963. Catholic nuns gather to pray at the grassy knoll in Dallas’s Dealey Plaza during President Kennedy’s funeral on Monday, November 25, 1963.

1964. President Johnson solemnly bows before JFK’s final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery on the day before Kennedy would have turned forty-seven years old, May 29, 1964.

1965. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his family kneel before JFK’s Eternal Flame, June 1965.

1967. This photograph, taken May 27, 1967, captures the moment of christening the USS
John F. Kennedy
at Newport News, Virginia, as nine-year-old Caroline Kennedy smashes a bottle on the ship’s bow while her younger brother observes under Jackie’s watchful gaze and that of President Johnson.

1968. JFK’s bust was present for most Cabinet meetings during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. The White House was presented with Kennedy’s likeness on November 19, 1964. In early 1963, sculptor Felix de Weldon was chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy to produce the bust that was to be a featured item in JFK’s eventual presidential library. President Kennedy posed for the work in the White House, but it was unfinished at the time of his death.

1968. Pallbearers carry Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s body to its final resting place near President Kennedy’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery, June 1968. RFK’s murder rekindled painful memories of his brother’s assassination and caused many people to wonder if the gunman, Sirhan B. Sirhan, had been part of a conspiracy.