I find it fascinating that at the age of 65 (I was 11 on that weekend) I'm still quite easily moved to tears by this footage. I tell my younger friends that while they sadly missed the joy of seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show just a few months later... they should be immensely thankful that they don't remember JFK's death, or Bobby's... because they were inescapable living nightmares. As I think most people of my generation will agree, these two deaths were a deep and deeply personal wound from which we as a generation, and as a nation... have never recovered.
I was 10 years old. I stayed up around the clock to watch his funeral and everything covered by the news. I feel as if though it happened yesterday. I do not understand how some can hate him, but it was for them also that he fought for rights. He is and always will be my hero. I have not seen the likes of him since Bobby ran only to see him go down too. God be with us. We face a cold war, right here in the USA only the enemy is hidden from view, but we feel the danger they emit.
I am so glad that there is color footage of the aftermath. I recall that weekend so clearly as though it was yesterday. This was the weekend that America changed forever. If only we had know what was really happening to us....
John F. KENNEDY WAS OUR PRESIDENT AND HAD A PROUND INFLUENCE ON ME. EVERYTHING I WAS ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH I OWE TO HIM...SERVICE...AND MY GOD. FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, NATION OUR PEOPLE. ALL OUR PEOPLE... ALL OUR PEOPLE... HE HAD GREAT COURAGE AND KNEW THAT HE MIGHT NOT HAVE MUCH TIME...HE WAS GRACIOUS, CULTURED, AND A WONDERFUL SPEAKER THAT INSPIRED A GENERATION. SERVICE NOT GREED. GOD BLESS HIM HE WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT MODEL OF MY LIFE.
tenningale ... I completely disagree. The reason for the marriage (which took place the same year that Bobby was assassinated, was a desire to protect her children, both from those who may have wished to harm them, and also to try to protect their privacy. Many reporters credited her with helping to hold the nation together in the wake of the assassination. She made one change in the protocol of the lying in state. Previously, the military honor guard faced outward, away from the casket, a symbolic way of standing guard over the body. Jackie’s impression was that it made it look as though her husband’s remains were alone. As a result, the honor guard turned, and faced the casket.
A moving remembrance of four very sad days in our recent history. The color footage has been restored and color corrected and looks so vibrant and the use of photographs only enhances the completed picture. Thank you for posting.
Mrs. Kennedy held us together during those horrible days. She transformed a national disgrace into a funeral that will never be forgotten. A truce lady under the most horrible of circumstances. May she and JFK rest together in eternal peace.
That conductor's announcement about JFK's assassination is about as as heartbreaking to here now as it was back on that horrible day in 1963. I remember it like it yesterday and even remember what my family had for dinner that night. So things you don't forget. RIP JFK.
I was three and was on the bridge to Arlington with my family on November 25, 1963. I was on my father's shoulders as the caisson passed. Unfortunately, I have no memory of that sad day. My parents always believed that the nation never got over JFK's assassination.
I was born a long time ago, and Kennedy is the only Pres. I have respected. In the last year of his brief stay, he began the Cold War Thaw with the Soviets, enacted the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,made a deal w/Castro to discuss a "new relationship" w/ Cuba, set peace has his no. 1 legacy, made lt clear that he would never send ground troops to Asia (Vietnam), became the most respected and loved leader in the world, brought the US back as leader of the West and as a rep. of rationale treatment of other nations, passed the largest tax cut in US history, proposed the Civil Rights Act and gave Americans a chilling look at being dark skinned in the US (a Profile in Courage in the '60s), proposed an increase in min. wage, =pay 4=work, Medicare,the Space Race followed by a joint effort w/Soviets, Ireland, Germany, S. Amer.,etc.,all while bringing out the best in those he led, charming our "enemies", and rep the youth, charm, wisdom and vigor of a proud US. Now, think what could have happened in the next 5 years.
JFK had a larger than life quality, that only Reagan had,but JFK was a much more interesting, and far greater President.. I'm sure when people remember JFK, when they were first in love during his era they will think of the songs and movies-Lawrence Of Arabia,Dr. No etc., but, I've never heard anyone say they saw Dr. Zhivago, 2001, or heard the Beatles,Stones,Dylan and so forth and think of LBJ or Nixon fondly. All the romance was gone. And with Vietnam ,and the Warren Report, what was left?
Ira Levin He was also a very curious man, who read a great deal, and ask penetrating questions of experts. I think very few Presidents could have threaded the needle in handling the Cuban Missile Crisis. Probably a Lincoln or FDR. Also, we never would have reached the Moon without Kennedy taking that bold step of setting a deadline. When JFK made that speech, the US had launched one astronaut into space, and only on a suborbital flight at that. The US, at that time, did not have a booster powerful enough to get a Mercury capsule into orbit. Johnson was a very different personality, and he had no idea how to handle Vietnam. He saw himself as trapped in it, and it consumed him. From his tapes, we know he didn’t want the war, but couldn’t find a way out. He actually didn’t understand the desire of the Vietnamese to be truly free and independent. Johnson was willing to try to find an agreement with Ho Chi Minh by building schools, hospitals, etc. in that sense his presidency was like a Greek tragedy. But, and this is important, in domestic matters, it was Johnson who was able to pass much of JFK’s agenda through Congress. In that, Johnson was by far the best at getting legislation passed. The Civil Rights Act, in which Johnson and Humphrey (then in the Senate) worked hard to get passed, was a Kennedy bill. So were many other bills that were passed.
everyyear when i get a new calander i mark the days of the months and i heart get sad when i come to november and i see the 22 and i mark that day kennedy shot in dallas and i cry in my heart i miss him so much . and i can hear him say ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country and thats why i join the navy 1972 and i retired 1993
Drove through DC during Christmas. Stopped by St Matthew Church. There you see an historical plaque by the front door of the church marking this site where JKF's funeral took place. As I walked down the staircase to the bottom where the sidewalk was, I envisioned John's brothers, Jackie and her children standing, looking out on the street as JFK's coffin as it lay on the carriage with horses. It was at the bottom of that staircase where all eyes of the world watched John John salute his father just before they took him to Arlington cemetery.
I was a little girl living fifteen minutes from where he was killed. I look back at it now and understand the way things were doing that time. I realized what that man meant to black people in the hate filled South. I do not know the whole story and I think the public never get the truth about his death. I admired John and the whole Kennedy clan. I do know that secrets will unfold. Believe It!
I was living in Canada and only 7 at the time and it affected me deeply they sent us home from school early that day not knowing I guess what was unfolding and that weekend it seemed life came to a stand still and the sense of sadness was unbelieveable and still is today reliving it and to think what might have been
One moment that was totally missed by TV footage and by still photographers was the few seconds when Mrs. Kennedy was presented the flag from the coffin by a soldier. There is plenty of footage of the removal and folding of the flag by the military personnel, and one shot I remember seeing of her holding the flag well after the presentation. It was a moment that will be lost forever in history.
during television coverage of the procession on the 24th, it was reported that members of the public who heard reports of Oswald's shooting on their transistor radios let out a cheer!
Eternal Father, Strong To Save... I'm not religious and only learned in my way more advanced years that this was played also as US Navy's regular in JFK's funeral. One of the greatest hymns ever, right up there with "Silent Night" etc.
I was but a wee lad at the time of JFK's assassination. But even at a young age, I knew something horrible had happened and was filled with a deep sense of sadness, fear and despair. I did not really know why, even as the grownup's around me wept and tried to give solace as best they could. This is the same sense of sadness, fear and despair I feel now in the 11th month of Donald Trump's 1st year since the shocking and sickening news of his election. We are now adrift on the tides of uncertainty as each new day remind's us that we are without a true leader. Where JFK brought us hope and a sense of strength, integrity and faith in leadership, we are left now with a sense of gloom, weakness, lack of moral compass and total ineptitude and strength of resolve and integrity. The ship of state flounder's and is without, as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's autobiographical book's title read's..."True Compass". RIP John, Robert and Edward. Your leadership is desperately needed in the present moment. Men of your ilk apparently no longer exist.
Robert was an opportunist and ruthless. I can never forgive him for cheating on Ethel with his sexual relationship with Jackie following, though not immediately, the death of his brother. As for Teddy, he was also a well known womanizer, even though married. Causing a young woman's death and leaving her to die in a creek is not exactly admirable. "Men of your ilk ?" Come now.
Hard to believe. I was a thirteen years old South American boy by the time. All my life long I've been asking who really did it, who was the true murderer.
I find it incredible that having been assassinated at 12:30 on the 22nd that by the morning of the 25th such an extravagant funeral procession and all that attends such was managed with such professionalism for JFK. The number of individuals involved had to be in the hundreds and each seems to have fulfilled his obligation seamlessly. On the other hand, when I die, I am certain that before the mortician can toss me into the crematoria, he'll drop my stiff ass on the floor a couple times before I make into bake and shake.
Martina Murray Relatives? I'm the last one left. When I finally depart, God only knows what will happen to my corpse and quite frankly, I couldn't care less.
robert glenn so you don,t have offspring,brothers or sisters or cousins? I guess there is always a will you could make outlining whatever you want to happen at the funeral etc
Martina Murray I have two sons, one in Germany, one in Boston and the last thing I will encumber them with is taking care of my body once gone. In fact, it's really my desire that they not find out until I've been gone a month or so. I tried to convince them decades ago that once dead, the body is similar to an egg or bird shell, the life once contained is gone to the next venue and all that is left behind is waste. I am currently 62 and we've spent the past years remaining close although thousands of miles apart. In fact. Sean wants me to come live with him in Berlin, however, I am not confident of the money thing. I am on social security and he just competed his doctorate and is getting on his feet at age 28 so to speak. I absolutely refuse to be a burden to anyone regardless of what one might say or state. In other words, as we exist currently, we are a trio of family who love one another dearly, however, I am not going to allow my passing to snag one nickel from either and social security pays next to nothing for burial or whatever. I am just going to let the state deal with me should I die alone here. I just lost my younger sister in April and daily feel her presence. Death is something genuinely misunderstood by most...it's really nothing more than a change of address.
robert glenn ok.But I think that your sons would have a right to know (legally also)when you pass and possibly what will happen they will decide on the funeral arrangements themselves.
