State Funeral of John F. Kennedy - White House Repose

White House Repose

After the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, 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, as opposed to the funeral home. The body was then put in a coffin made of 500-year old African mahogany, as some of the handles and ornaments on the bronze one that carried the body from Dallas had been damaged en route.

The body of President Kennedy was returned to the White House at nearly 4:30 a.m., Saturday, November 23. The motorcade bearing the remains was met at the White House gate by a Marine honor guard, which escorted it to the North Portico, where it was borne to the East Room. After being placed in the East Room, Jacqueline Kennedy declared that the casket would be kept closed for the duration of the viewing and funeral. There were conflicting views as to why she declared that the casket would be closed. Religious leaders said that it minimized morbid concentration on the corpse. The White House said that Kennedy was shot in the head and neck and that the head wound was a gaping one. Mrs. Kennedy, still wearing the blood-stained raspberry-colored suit she wore in Dallas, had to that point refused to leave the side of her husband's body since his death. Only after the casket was placed in the East Room, now decorated with black crepe, did she retire to her private quarters. She requested that two Catholic priests 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.

Kennedy's casket remained in the East Room for 24 hours, as he lay in repose. (Then, the term "lying in repose" meant private, as opposed to a public lying in state.)

A Mass was said in the East Room at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 23. After that, other family members, friends, and other government officials came at specified times to pay their respects, including former U.S. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. (The other surviving former U.S. president at the time, Herbert Hoover, was too ill to attend, and was represented by his sons. Herbert Hoover Jr. attended the funeral, while Allan Hoover went to the services in the rotunda; Hoover died 11 months afterward and also lay in state.).

Kennedy lay where, nearly one hundred years earlier, Lincoln had lain. An honor guard and two priests stood vigil over his remains. The honor guard included 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, North Carolina, at the request of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was aware of his brother's particular interest in them.

The catafalque upon which the remains rested was the same one used in 1958 during the funerals of the Unknown Soldiers from the Korean War and World War II at Arlington.

Outside the White House and in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, crowds stood in the rain, keeping a vigil and paying quiet respects. It rained all day in Washington, befitting the mood of the nation.