JFK Jr: We Remember

On this episode of Maverick News, Rick Walker and I remember John F. #Kennedy Jr., who was laid to rest 24 years ago today.

#JFKJr's funeral was a star-studded affair. At any other time, a gathering of celebrities such as this would have been joyful -- but on this unforgettable day, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

President #Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton were among the 315 invited guests who gathered in the shadowy sanctuary and red velvet pews of the 129-year-old Church of St. Thomas More on Manhattan's Upper East Side to mourn Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, 34, who died July 16, 1999 in a plane crash. The Kennedy family's surviving patriarch, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), delivered a moving eulogy.

"From the first day of his life, John seemed to belong not only to our family, but to the American family," Kennedy said, choking at times with emotion, of his 38-year-old nephew. "He had a legacy, and he learned to treasure it. He was part of a legend, and he learned to live with it."

Throngs of journalists staked out the area around the church, where streets were cordoned off to traffic. Pedestrian movement was locked down tightly by New York City police and U.S. Secret Service agents. Hundreds of onlookers, some of them moved to tears, gathered on the surrounding streets for several hours, their flowers of condolence wilting in the blazing heat.

In his eulogy, Kennedy – the family patriarch since the assassinations of his brothers, President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 – evoked both humor about times gone by and mournful regrets at a future that is no more.

"We thank the millions who have rained blossoms down on John's memory," Kennedy said, standing near an altar surrounded by white roses and lilies of the valley. "He and his bride have gone to be with his mother and father, where there will never be an end to love. He was lost on that troubled night, but we will always wake for him, so that his time, which was not doubled, but cut in half, will live forever in our memory and in our beguiled and broken hearts."

Quoting a bit of William Butler Yeats' "In Memory of Major Robert Gregory," he said, "We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But like his father, he had every gift but length of years."

Among other guests were Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), and former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), who has been teaching at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

The Mass was celebrated by the same Jesuit priest, the Rev. Charles J. O'Byrne, who married John and Carolyn Kennedy in a private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Ga. Only three short years later, he officiated at their burial at sea. 

We talk about John Kennedy Jr.'s political ambitions on this episode, and his lasting contribution to American culture with George -- a magazine that was years ahead of its time.

Support my independent journalism at:
http://LoriSpencer.Wordpress.com/donate

Follow me on Twitter:
http://Twitter.com/RealLoriSpencer

Subscribe on Rumble for UNCENSORED videos Youtube won't let me show you!
http://Rumble.com/LoriSpencer