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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Nov. 25, 1963
World Leaders—
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who would follow on foot as Mrs. Kennedy walked behind the coffin of her husband from his home to the cathedral.
Others gathered at the cathedral.
Former President Harry S. Truman arrived at 11:30 a.m. His daughter Margaret had to help him up the steps.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt who had succeeded to the presidency when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, entered the still incomplete cathedral, a 65-year-old church drab on the outside but a glittering jewel within.
New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and his wife were there just a few minutes before former Vice-President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon.
There was a delegation of house members, also Alabama Gov. George Wallace, his bitter disputes with Kennedy forgotten.
AN ARAB DIPLOMAT arrived in flowing desert robes—black and white, the colors of mourning.
West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt . . . AFLCIO President George Meany . . . astronaut John Glenn . . . the Rev. Billy Graham.
World leaders and diplomas, filing two by two into the church-physical evidence that a world mourned.
All political and religious differences were forgotten for the moment. Among the marchers were listed the leaders of the free world, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's right-hand man, Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, Arab and Jew.
De Gaulle marched solemnly, wearing the olive drab uniform of a French marshal. At one point he removed his hat and carried it. He walked straight and stiff, looking down at his feet.
Queen Frederika of Greece was one of the marching mourners.
Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, with a brilliant green vest and with grief in his eyes, followed the caisson.
As the caisson left the White House grounds.
a woman standing on the curb dropped a handkerchief at her feet. She let it lie there. It was not a time to move.
AFTER THE SERVICES, the cortege was to proceed to Arlington National Cemetery where the commander of PT-109 will rest forever among fellow comrades-in-arms of World War II and other heroic dead.
The "Rest in Peace" mass for America's first Roman Catholic President was offered in the presence of 1,200 persons who had come from near and far to make a final gesture of love or respect.
"Life is not taken away . . . life is but changed," intoned white-haired Cardinal Cushing, as he offered the ancient Catholic prayer for the departed;
"Be merciful, we beseech thee, O Lord, to the soul of Thy servant, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, whom you have just called out of this world. . . He put his hope and trust in you: Do not then let him undergo the pains of hell, but bring him to happiness without end."
BY THE SIDE of the grief-numbed young widow was Attv. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy, the late President's brother and closest to him of all in the closely-knit Kennedy family.
One of Kennedy's favorite hymns, the Ave Maria, was sung before the mass by Luigi Vena, a Boston tenor who also sang at the late President's wedding.
The cathedral choir then sang the ancient funeral hymn "Libera Me" (which begins with the words, "deliver me, oh Lord, from everlasting death . . .") in a new setting by the Italian composer Perosi.
THE SERVICE CONDUCTED by Cardinal Cushing was what is known technically as a "low" mass, which means that it was the simplest type of mass, spoken rather than sung, with a single priest officiating rather than the three who would have been required had the family chosen a solemn high mass.
There was no eulogy. Insofar as the service itself went, the deceased son of the Church before the altar might have been an unknown laborer rather than the President of the United States.
(Continued from page 1) ward. He was stopped by a policeman, but was told "He's all right" because he worked in the building, and was allowed to leave.
Dallas Night Club-
Wade said police got on his trail because of the report of a woman who told of a man who laughed because Kennedy had been shot.
IT WAS ABOUT this time that a woman said that a bus passenger told her that the President had been shot. She didn't believe it, and asked the passenger where he had heard it. He pointed to a man, presumably Oswald, in the rear.
Wade said he had "no idea" how Ruby got into the underground garage where Oswald was to be loaded into an armored car for the transfer from the jail at city hall to the county jail seven blocks away.
"Yes, the President is shot," the man said. He laughed, she said, and shocked her.
Chief of Police Jess Curry was sharply criticized for deciding to transfer Oswald during the daytime. He noted that he could have moved the assassin secretly "in the dark of the night," but had promised the reporters and photographers from throughout the nation and free world that he would make the transfer during the day.
WHEN OSWALD WAS SHOT it was the second time in three days that a killer made a mockery of extra heavy Dallas police security precautions.
Ruby, a "glad-hander" and practiced gate-crasher, is known by many of the policemen guarding Oswald.
Det. B. H. Combest was standing about two feet away from Oswald when he was shot.
"I SAW RUBY take about five or six steps toward Oswald." Combesd said. "I knew Ruby and knew he wasn't supposed to be there.
"I shouted, 'Jack, you S.O.B., what are you "doing?" about that time I heard the shot. Oswald fell and pulled (Det. J. R.) Leavelle, (who was handcuffed to Oswald) down with him. I looked at Oswald and there was a large hole in his black sweater.
"When I saw Ruby run out toward
Oswald, there was nothing I could do but shout at him. I just couldn't have gotten to him."
Ruby, in a brown suit and snap brim fedora, crouched. He got close enough to fire point-black . . . four inches or less. National television cameras were trained on the scene —the first actual slaying on television.
One of Ruby's four attorneys said they planned to enter a plea of temporary insanity. He was emotionally upset because he admired President Kennedy and his wife so much, they said.
"JACK LOVED every President, that's his problem," said his sister, Mrs. Eva L. Grant of Dallas.
Ruby lived with a roommate in a $165-a-month apartment and kept four dogs.
The roommate, George Senator, said it was "inconceivable" that Ruby could be violent. However, he said he knew that Ruby was troubled by Kennedy's death.
"He's being going around the apartment saying, "Those poor kids . . . those poor kids," Senator said. "It bothered him tremendously."
KU Freshman Dies Of Suicide Attempt
A freshman was found dead yesterday afternoon in Ellsworth Men's Residence Hall after he apparently had attempted to hang himself by the use of belts from a steam pipe running across the ceiling of his room.
Dr. James Reed, Douglas County coroner, said Rollin S. Wade, 17, Lenexa freshman, apparently died of a cerebral hemorrhage and contusion when the buckle on one of the belts broke and Wade fell, striking the floor with his head.
Ronald Renyer, 21, Berryton junior, and Wade's roommate, discovered the body when he returned from a weekend trip.
Dr. Reed said Wade had been dead at least 24 hours. Residents who had seen Wade Friday night said he did not appear to be emotionally upset. No note was found.
VS.
QUARTERBACK CLUB MEETING
Tuesday-Dec. 3 7 p.m.
See the final films of the K.U. football season.
Don't forget it's a week from Tues., not THIS Tues.
Forum Room (Student Union)