JFK Eternal Flame

This is a photograph in my Washington DC Memorials series.

If you’re my age give or take 10 years, you remember the assassination of President ...
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This is a photograph in my Washington DC Memorials series.

If you’re my age give or take 10 years, you remember the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. For me, even at that young age, it was a defining moment in my life. Many of us remember exactly what we were doing when we found out the tragic news. I do.

President Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and his gravesite was marked with an eternal flame. Jacqueline Kennedy lit a taper from a candle held by a nearby soldier, and then brought the eternal flame to life at the end of the burial service. The president's brothers, Robert and Ted, symbolically lit the flame after her. This was a temporary burner that was replaced later by one with an electrical ignition which keeps the flame lit in wind or rain.

Something I didn’t know until I did some research for this description is that the grave was placed so that it had a view of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, and was aligned with them. Quite an honor.

JFK’s wife, Jacqueline, was interred next to her husband in 1994. Also buried there are their children, Patrick and Arabella.

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