At its best

“Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Mr. President:

On behalf of Mrs. Kennedy, her children, the parents and sisters of Robert Kennedy, I want to express what we feel to those who mourn with us today in this Cathedral and around the world.

We loved him as a brother, and as a father, and as a son. From his parents, and from his older brothers and sisters — Joe and Kathleen and Jack — he received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us. He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side.

Love is not an easy feeling to put into words. Nor is loyalty, or trust, or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely.[…]

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

‘Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.’”

You may read the full transcript of Teddy Kennedy’s eulogy for his brother here.

Patricia, Ethel, and Teddy Kennedy with Bobby’s children during his funeral mass at St. Patrick’s cathedral.

Another of Jackie, Caroline, and John Jr.

Jacqueline with Caroline and John Jr., at Senator Kennedy’s wake.

Teddy with Lyndon Johnson at Bobby’s funeral mass.

Senator Ted Kennedy stands on the back of the funeral train carrying his brothers body during a more peaceful moment.

On the night before he won the 1968 Californian Democratic Primary, Romero had met Bobby Kennedy in the Royal Suite 5th floor Rooms 511-512 of the Ambassador. Romero had done a deal with the busboy who drew the Kennedy duty by offering to do that persons trays for the night. The busboy refused, so Romero also offered to pay him for the opportunity to meet the famed Senator and Presidential hopeful.

The room service call from the Presidential Suite came and Juan delivered it. The door was answered by an RFK aide and Romero wheeled the food cart up to Bobby who as Juan later recalled, “he shook my hand as hard as anyone had ever shaken it.” Juan walked out of the room feeling 20ft tall and thought to himself, “‘I’m not just a busboy; I’m a human being.’ RFK made me feel that way.”

On election night Juan wanted to congratulate RFK on his election win made his way down to the pantry to await his arrival. Juan said the crowd was 6-7 feet deep but he stuck out his hand and Senator Kennedy grabbed it. Juan heard a bang and felt a flash of heat aganist his face, as it had turned out, Sirhan had fired just off Juan’s shoulder.

RFK fell to the ground, and Juan immediately bent down beside RFK asking him if he was OK and if he could get up. Bobby responded by asking Juan if everybody was alright, instead.

I’m usually extremely wary to post any funeral pictures unless they’re on the date of that specific anniversary, but this is such a rare picture of Jackie and Ted at President Kennedy’s memorial (November 1963) that I felt I could bend my rules for once.

November 25th was also the 3rd birthday of John F. Kennedy Jr.

“On Monday morning, the day of the funeral, RFK was somber and composed. Outside St. Matthew’s, when little John F. Kennedy Jr. raised his tiny hand to salute his slain father, RFK’s face could be seen constricting in pain.”

- From Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas (a great book I’d recommend to any Bobby fans).

After the funeral, Lady Jean Campbell reported back to The London Evening Standard: “Jacqueline Kennedy has given the American people… one thing they have always lacked: Majesty.”

The widow was not unaware of the powerful effect she was making. Though Mrs. Kennedy was deeply distraught by the loss, she also showed a steely determination to make this the solemn outgoing show of her husband’s era

46 years ago today, the State funeral for President John F. Kennedy was held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington DC.

As he did during their wedding ten years earlier, Luigi Vena sang Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria after the offertory as Jacqueline Kennedy had requested it-  and for a few moments, she lost her composure and sobbed as this music filled the cathedral.