John F. Kennedy Funeral Invitation 11/25/63 For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

John F. Kennedy Funeral Invitation 11/25/63:
$575.00

60 years ago (November 22, 1963) this year, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. Three days later, on November 25, 1963, he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. The funeral was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 100 counties, with untold millions more watching on television. Afterward, at the grave site, Jacqueline Kennedy and President Kennedy's two brothers - Robert and Edward, lit an eternal flame. According to the JFK Library, there were 1,200 individuals invited to attend the President's funeral.

Featured here is a rare White House official funeral invitation with blind embossed Presidential Seal and two prayer cards, along with original envelope. Also included is an admission card to St. Mathew’s Cathedral. When these hit the market they can sell for up to $1000.

Based on an oral interview for the JFK Library, Sanford Fox, who was Chief of the Social Entertainment Office, recalls the preparation for the funeral invitation and mass cards. He started in this office under FDR. He handled printing, engraving and social events for State Affairs, in collaboration with the White House Social Secretary and Mrs. Kennedy herself. He recalls 41 dinners, 115 luncheons, 20 musicals and 14 receptions for members of Congress, diplomatic corps, etc.

He pulled from his files how the White House handled the death and funeral of FDR. This guided their work. He worked closely with Sergeant Shriver (JFK’ brother-in-law and head of the Peace Corps) and Ambassador Angier offerdle Duke (Chief of Protocol) on all the details. He had help from the Government Printing Office as well for printing of the funeral invitations and the mass cards.

He recalls Sergeant Shriver giving him mass cards of the President’s brother and sister who has previously passed so Sandy had examples to draw from. Mr. Shriver also said the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi was a favorite of the President and to incorporate that on the mass card.

Sanford also worked with Chief Knudsen, a lead photographer from the military who covered the President and identified pictures that Mrs. Kennedy could choose from for the mass card. There were three photographs that were narrowed down to give to Mrs. Kennedy. Ironically she chose the very same one that JFK said to save for special occasions.

Sandy met with Robert F. Kennedy, Sergeant Shriver and Mrs. Kennedy. She had drawn out on White House stationery what she would like for the mass card. It included this statement, “Dear God, please take care of your servant John Fitzgerald Kennedy.” Mr. Shriver brought a large printed copy of JFK’s inaugural address and she chose pieces of the last three paragraphs to include also.

Ironically, Mr. Fox was in the middle of planning a White House state dinner on 11/25/63, for the Chancellor of a West Germany. It was of course cancelled due to JFK’s funeral which would be on the same day. I just sold one of those menus.

Once the White House Social Secretary and Chief of Protocol learned that President Kennedy had been assassinated on 11/22/63, the State Dinner was of course cancelled and planning began for the funeral instead.

The lying-in-state of Kennedy's body in the Rotunda of the Capitol was modeled on that of Lincoln in 1865. The catafalque that had borne the Great Emancipator's coffin was brought out of storage and used again. No one was allowed to miss the historical significance of this restaging, which accorded to JFK in death a Lincolnesque moral stature in relation to African American advancement that he had not attained during his lifetime. So many ordinary citizens came to pay their respects that the Rotunda was held open all night long. More than a quarter of a million mourners, eight abreast filed past between 1:30 Sunday afternoon and 8:00 the next morning.

Although the officials in charge followed the rule book for military and state funerals to the letter, Mrs. Kennedy added a number of personal touches and orchestrated the event. When she insisted on walking behind the caisson to the funeral mass rather than ride "in a fat black Cadillac," researchers were dispatched to the Library of Congress, where they were relieved to find in the volumes of yellowed newsprint verification that a precedent existed in the funeral procession of Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Grant.

A more recent touch was the riderless horse carrying a pair of boots reversed in the stirrups. That funeral motif supposedly dates back to the time of Genghis Khan as a way to commemorate a leader lost in battle. It had been used for an American presidential funeral only once, eighteen years earlier, at the wartime death of Roosevelt. A gelding that ironically bore the name Black Jack — the nickname for Jackie's father — was led behind the flag-draped bier of the other Jack, her husband. As historian William Manchester describes it, "His streaming flanks were unnatural, alarming. His steel hooves clattered in jarring tattoo, an unnerving contrast to the crack cadence in front; his eyes rolled whitely. He was nearly impossible to control." The horse brought a note of barely tamed urgency to the proceedings, but he did not upstage the first lady. The funeral, attended by delegates from eighty-two countries (including eight heads of state and ten prime ministers) and watched live by hundreds of millions of people across the globe (it was broadcast even on Soviet state television), was Jackie's show from first to last.

NORMAN ROCKWELL Lithograph of JOHN F KENNEDY Signed Numbered Limited Edition JFK

$249.00

Kevin Francis Face Pot- President John F. Kennedy "Ask not what your country..."

$65.00

PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY JFK PRESIDENTIAL SEAL AUTOGRAPHED 8X10 PHOTOGRAPH

$8.49