America marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Friday with somber, subdued remembrances.
From Gotham’s canyons to the grassy knoll in Dallas, Americans of all generations acknowledged the awful events of Nov. 22, 1963 — the day an assassin’s bullet robbed the country of its young, charismatic leader at a time of turmoil at home and abroad.
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The 35th President’s remarkable combination of “youth” and “grace” and his heroics in the Navy during WWII “moved people in a way that still resonates with us today,” President Obama said.
“I don’t know of anyone who has had that same impact on a generation and inspired so many people as JFK has,” the 44th President told ABC News’ Barbara Walters.
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Nowhere on Friday was the pain more palpable than at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where 85-year-old Jean Kennedy Smith — the slain President’s last surviving sibling — laid a wreath at her brother’s grave. Smith and 10 members of the Kennedy clan joined hands and prayed as the eternal flame burned steady and bright.
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Fresh roses covered the rain-soaked grave.
Across the pond, Kennedy’s granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, 23, paid her respects at a memorial in England. “Ms. Schlossberg talked very movingly about the impact her grandfather had and how, although she never knew him, she felt very connected with him,” said Geri Silverstone of the conservation group that owns the land in Berkshire on which the memorial is located.
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In Dallas, where Kennedy was killed, church bells tolled at 12:30 p.m. for the country’s first — and so far only — Roman Catholic President.
At Dealey Plaza in the city’s downtown, thousands bowed their heads near the place where Kennedy, riding in a convertible limousine, was felled by a bullet that Lee Harvey Oswald fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. That terrible day was bright and sunny. It was cold, damp and windy on the anniversary.
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“A new era dawned and another waned a half-century ago when hope and hatred collided right here in Dallas,” Mayor Mike Rawlings said. “Our collective hearts were broken.”
This year, in a sign of respect, the conspiracy theorists who believe Kennedy was the victim of forces greater than a single frustrated communist were barred from the nearby grassy knoll — the place where some believe a second assassin fired at Kennedy but missed.
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Flags were lowered at Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy died of his wounds.
The Texas Theatre in Dallas played “War is Hell,” the same movie that was on the screen when Oswald slipped inside after the shooting in an effort to elude pursuing police.
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In Boston, Kennedy’s home turf, a steady rain fell as Gov. Deval Patrick led a poignant — and wordless — wreath-laying ceremony at the John F. Kennedy statue at the Statehouse.
Kennedy was proud of his Irish roots, and outside the American embassy in Dublin, an honor guard of gun-toting Irish soldiers stood watch.
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An Irish army commander drew his sword and held it aloft as a trumpeter played “The Last Post,” a traditional salute to the dead.
Watching them were some of the former Irish cadets whom Jacqueline Kennedy invited to serve as a graveside honor guard for her slain husband.
“We were young guys, all pretty much 18. We had no passports, no visas. None of us had flown before,” said retired Col. Brian O’Reilly, 68. “We were told on the Saturday night we were wanted for the funeral. The next day, we were on the plane with our own president heading for Washington.”
In Warsaw, Poland, negotiators at the United Nations climate talks paused from their wrangling to remember America’s slain President.
And in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg recalled how he broke the news to college friend. “We had a fraternity dance or something or other that night, and he had an old car and the radio didn’t work,” Bloomberg said on WOR radio. “He said, ‘I drove by the Pentagon, and there were all these helicopters going in and out, in and out.’ And so he had no idea. He didn’t know.”
With News Wire Services
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