But the genre took on a different hue two months later. Robert Kennedy's funeral day was one like no other in recent history, the official melding of celebrity and pomp. The trip, chronicled live on national television, became chiseled in American mythology. It was as though no one wanted this latest chapter to end. Little Leaguers tipped their caps as the train went by.
People knelt in prayer by the tracks.
Little girls threw flowers. Ted Kennedy and widow Ethel would come out and wave. Friday's service, by contrast, was intensely private. When the 90-minute service was over, none of the 315 guests stopped to chat. Galbraith walked slowly, but deliberately, with his cane up Madison Avenue.