Senator Mike Mansfield intones a mournful, poetic eulogy. With daughter Caroline by the hand, the president's widow kneels by the casket and kisses the flag, the little girl looking up to her mother for guidance. Throughout Sunday, tributes to the late president and scenes of mourners at the Capitol intertwine with news of the assassin and the assassin of the assassin, a Dallas strip club owner named Jack Ruby. Remote coverage of church services around the nation and solemn musical interludes is intercut and dissolved into the endless stream of mourners in Washington. Host Fredric March recites the Gettysburg Address, Charlton Heston reads from the Psalms and Robert Frost, and Marian Anderson sings Negro spirituals.
Television imprints a series of memorable snapshot images.
No sooner do commentators remind viewers that this day marks the president's son's third birthday, then outside the church, as the caisson passes by, little John F. Kennedy, Jr. salutes. The spirited stallion Black Jack, a riderless steed with boots pointed backwards in the stirrup, kicks up defiantly. The quiet power of the spectacle is a masterpiece of televisual choreography. Besides maintaining their own cameras and crews, each of the networks contributes cameras for pool coverage. CBS's Arthur Kane is assigned the task of directing the coverage of the procession and funereal, coordinating over 60 cameras stationed strategically along the route.