The state funeral of U.S. president John F. Kennedy took place in Washington, D.C. and Virginia, during the three days that followed his assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Kennedy's body was brought back to Washington after his assassination. Early on November 23, six military pallbearers carried the flag-draped coffin into the East Room of the White House, where he lay in repose for 24 hours. Then, his flag-draped coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol to lie in state. Throughout the day and night, hundreds of thousands lined up to view the guarded casket, with a quarter million passing through the rotunda during the 18 hours of lying in state.
Kennedy's funeral service was held on November 25 at St. Matthew's Cathedral. The Requiem Mass was led by Cardinal Richard Cushing. About 1,200 guests, including representatives from over 90 countries, attended. After the service, Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Preparations for the state funeral
After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, his body was flown back to Washington, and taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital for the autopsy. At the same time, military authorities began making arrangements for a state funeral. Army Major General Philip C. Wehle, the commanding general of the Military District of Washington (MDW) (CG MDW), and retired Army Colonel Paul C. Miller, chief of ceremonies and special events at the MDW, planned the funeral.
They headed to the White House and worked with the president's brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, also director of the Peace Corps, and Ralph Dungan, an aide to the president. Because President Kennedy had no funeral plan in place, much of the planning rested with the CG MDW. House speaker John W. McCormack said that the president's body would be brought back to the White House to lie in the East Room the following day and then taken to the Capitol to lie in state in the rotunda all day Sunday.
Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline "Jackie" Kennedy worked with chief usher J.B. West to incorporate details from the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln, who was also assassinated in office, and asked that the East Room look like when Lincoln lay there.
The day after the assassination, the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, issued Presidential Proclamation 3561, declaring Monday to be a national day of mourning, and only essential emergency workers to be at their posts. He read the proclamation over a nationwide radio and television broadcast at 4:45 p.m. from the Fish Room of the White House.
Several elements of the state funeral paid tribute to President Kennedy's service in the Navy during World War II. They included a member of the Navy bearing the presidential flag, the playing of the Navy Hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," and the Naval Academy Glee Club performing at the White House.
After the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, President Kennedy's body was prepared for burial by embalmers from Gawler's Funeral Home in Washington, who performed the embalming and cosmetic restoration procedures at Bethesda. He was dressed in a bluish-gray pinstriped suit with a white shirt, black shoes, and blue tie with dots while a Catholic rosary was placed in his hands. Afterwards, he was put in a new mahogany casket in place of the bronze casket used to transport the body from Dallas, which had been damaged in transit.
President Kennedy's body was returned to the White House at about 4:30 a.m. EST on Saturday, November 23. The motorcade bearing the remains was met at the White House gate by a U.S. Marine Corps honor guard, which escorted it to the North Portico. The pallbearers bore the casket to the East Room and placed it on Lincoln's catafalque, also previously used for the funerals of the Unknown Soldiers from the Korean War and World War II at Arlington. Jacqueline Kennedy declared that the casket would be kept closed for the viewing and funeral. The shot to President Kennedy's head left a gaping wound, and religious leaders said a closed casket minimized morbid concentration on the body.
Mrs. Kennedy, still wearing the blood-stained suit she wore in Dallas, had not left the side of her husband's body since he was shot. Only after the casket was placed in the East Room, draped with black crêpe, did she retire to her private quarters.
President Kennedy's body lay in repose in the East Room for 24 hours, attended by an honor guard including troops from the 3rd Infantry and from the Army's Special Forces (Green Berets). The Special Forces troops had been brought hurriedly from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, at the request of U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, who was aware of his brother's particular interest in them.
Mrs. Kennedy requested two Catholic priests to remain with the body until the official funeral. A call was made to the Catholic University of America, and Msgr. Robert Paul Mohan and Fr. Gilbert Hartke, two prominent Washington, D.C., priests, were immediately dispatched for the task.
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara visited Arlington National Cemetery to inspect a possible gravesite for Kennedy at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 23. A solemn Mass was celebrated for family in the East Room at 10:30 a.m. Fr. M. Frank Ruppert of St. Matthew's Cathedral Parish would celebrate another Mass in the East Room the following day. After the Mass, other family members, friends, and other government officials came at specified times to pay their respects to President Kennedy. This included former U.S. presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The other surviving former U.S. president at the time, Herbert Hoover, was too ill to attend the state funeral, and was represented by his sons, Herbert Jr. and Allan.
In addition, family members and friends accompanied McNamara back to Arlington. Jackie later decided to have her husband join William Howard Taft as the only presidents to be buried at Arlington, and that he be buried on a slope leading up to the Robert E. Lee Mansion, directly in line with the Lincoln Memorial.
In Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, crowds stood in the rain, keeping the vigil they began the day before and would continue through the funeral. It rained all day in Washington, befitting the mood of the nation.
On Sunday afternoon, about 300,000 people watched a horse-drawn caisson, which had borne the body of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Unknown Soldier, carry President Kennedy's flag-covered casket down the White House drive, past parallel rows of soldiers bearing the flags of the 50 states of the Union, then along Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol Rotunda to lie in state. The only sounds on Pennsylvania Avenue as the cortège made its way to the Capitol were the sounds of the muffled drums and the clacking of horses' hooves, including the riderless (caparisoned) horse Black Jack. The journalists marched and were last in the cortège as it made its way to the Capitol.