A Final Farewell JFK Jr. 1960-1999

In a simple, solemn ceremony aboard a Navy destroyer, the ashes of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette are committed to the ocean, not far from where they died.

By Times wire services

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 23, 1999

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. -- The ashes of John F. Kennedy Jr., a reluctant celebrity who had found bits of privacy aboard kayaks and yachts, were committed to the deep Thursday during a ceremony carried out beyond the reach of long-range television cameras.

His final rest came within sight of the beaches where he had spent childhood summers hunting for pirate wrecks.

Three wreaths of red, yellow and white blooms trailed a Navy destroyer, the USS Briscoe, after the committal of Kennedy, 38; his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33; and her sister, Lauren Bessette, 34, to the Atlantic Ocean, about 3 miles from the spot where Kennedy's plane crashed Friday night as they approached Martha's Vineyard Airport.

The gathering of 17 family members on the Briscoe's stern followed Kennedy's wishes.

The destroyer spent about half an hour nearly motionless for the service, led by Kennedy's sister, Caroline, and mother-in-law. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and JFK Jr.'s cousins William Kennedy Smith and Maria Shriver were also there.

"It was very simple, but very solemn," said the Rev. Louis Iasiello, a Navy chaplain who assisted the Rev. Charles O'Byrne in the ceremony.

A brass quintet from the Newport Navy Band played Eternal Father, a Navy hymn, when the ashes were committed to the sea, Iasiello said. The quintet also played Abide With Me and For All the Saints.

Prayers and scriptures were read from the Book of Wisdom, including the passage: "The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them."

Other memorials were to follow.

About 800 people crowded into a Catholic church in New York's Little Italy neighborhood Thursday night for a public memorial organized by the city's Irish community.

A private Mass was planned for today in New York City at the Church of St. Thomas More. President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton planned to attend.

Thursday, though, was just for the families, with Sen. Kennedy carrying his nephew's remains aboard the destroyer. The Federal Aviation Administration closed air space for 10 nautical miles around the Briscoe, and any boats that tried to approach were met by a Coast Guard crew and the barked instruction, "One mile, captain!"

The Bessette family arrived early Thursday at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port. About 8:30 a.m., the two families boarded a motorcade for the 22-mile trip to the Coast Guard station at Woods Hole. A Coast Guard cutter, Sanibel, ferried the mourners out to the Briscoe.

During the ceremony, mourners in dark clothes joined Navy officers in dress whites on the fantail.

The Roman Catholic Church allows cremation, though burial is still the preferred practice. U.S. bishops forbid the scattering of ashes at sea; an urn containing the full set of remains must be placed into the water. Iasiello would not say what practice was followed in Thursday's ceremony, but the Washington Post reported that relatives scattered the ashes.

A billowing flag, lowered to half-mast, was raised as the ceremony ended and the Briscoe began returning to harbor.

The Navy used a seldom-invoked exception to its rules for Thursday's ceremony. U.S. citizens without military connections can be buried from a naval vessel only if the chief of naval operations makes an exception in recognition of their "notable service or outstanding contributions to the United States."

A Navy spokeswoman, Lt. Meghan Mariman, said "several" such civilian burials at sea are approved each year, but she knew of no examples. Kennedy never served in the military.

The chief of naval operations, Adm. Jay Johnson, ordered the Briscoe to participate, Mariman said, after he was asked by the Defense Secretary William Cohen to support a request by Sen. Kennedy.

The Briscoe was taking part in a training exercise off of Virginia when ordered north Wednesday afternoon, Mariman said, and was "the closest ship to Martha's Vineyard" not on active fleet duty.

Most funeral services at sea, whether for civilians, veterans or their dependents, are conducted at the Navy's convenience, Mariman said, calling the diversion of the Briscoe "definitely unusual." Costs above and beyond the Briscoe's normal training expenses are likely to be small, she said, and will be borne by the Navy.

The Pentagon said the impact on the operational schedule of the Briscoe was minimal.

"The ship was going to be at sea anyway," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon said.

And yet Bacon also confirmed that the military has been forced to cut back its participation in veterans' funerals in recent years.

Whereas many veterans once received a military detail at their funerals -- such as having two soldiers present to fold an American flag and a third to play taps on the bugle -- the Pentagon is now "not able to provide full teams," Bacon said.

"Seeing the ship off Martha's Vineyard, that would pay for a lot of buglers for a lot of people who've done a lot more for their country," said John Pike, a defense analyst for the Federation of American Scientists. Pike's father, who was in World War II and the Korean war, died several weeks ago and was denied a bugle player at his funeral, he said.

On a note that could comfort relatives, yet came as a reminder of an investigation that is expected to continue for many months, the Massachusetts medical examiner's office announced Thursday that autopsies overnight had shown that all three victims had died instantaneously. The official cause of death was "multiple traumatic injuries."

The autopsy of Kennedy showed no signs of a sudden medical incapacitation. Also, no mechanical problem with the plane has been found, bolstering the emerging consensus among aviation experts that Kennedy may have become disoriented.

The New York Times, citing a family source, reported that Sen. Kennedy had requested customary photographs not be taken during the autopsy so they could not be leaked to tabloids.

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