Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Sanford was in Winston-Salem when he heard that the president had been shot. He directed his driver to take him back to the Governor's Mansion in Raleigh, and along the way he learned that Kennedy had died. His office issued a brief statement, calling the event "overwhelming". Sanford rarely spoke of Kennedy's assassination in his later years, and preferred to avoid discussion of it when the subject arose. He felt that it had changed the world and negatively impacted the United States. He and his family attended Kennedy's state funeral in Washington D.C.. The assassination came at a time when Sanford had been lobbying Kennedy to consider locating a large environmental research center in North Carolina. The decision then fell to Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy as President of the United States and had to consider pressure from other politicians that wanted the facility in their own respective states.