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filed under | history | monument
After Kennedy's assassination, the widowed First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, requested an eternal flame for his gravesite. She was inspired by the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which she and her husband had seen during a visit to France in 1961, and/or took inspiration from the "candle in the wind" of Arthurian legend, and the Broadway Play "Camelot." According to William Manchester's Death of a President (1967), Mrs. Kennedy made her request for an eternal flame on the afternoon of November 24, 1963, after she returned to the White House from the lying-in-state ceremony at the Capitol. The military planners who were organizing the funeral granted her request immediately and rushed to implement it. Overnight, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ran a gas line to the planned gravesite, fed by propane tanks from a distance. On November 25, 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy lit the flame at the end of the burial service during the state funeral. She did this by bringing a lighted taper, which was handed to her by a soldier, against the nub of the torch mechanism, which was surrounded by evergreen branches. The eternal flame sprang to life immediately, safely with a steady flame. This was seen live on nationwide television and broadcast to other nations by satellite. The late president's brothers, Robert and Ted, then took turns symbolically lighting the flame in the same manner as their sister-in-law. About a month after it was lit, the flame was extinguished for the first and only time, as of 2009. A Catholic school group visiting the site poured, rather than sprinkled, holy water directly onto the flame, and it went out. A quick-thinking guard used his lighter to reignite the fire. The present device rests on top of a five-foot circular granite stone at the head of the grave. It produces a continuous spark which re-ignites the flame whenever it is momentarily extinguished by any means (such as rain, snow, or wind). The device blows a continuous flow of air at the flame, keeping it a uniform color. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment ("The Old Guard") stood vigil over President Kennedy's gravesite from 1963 through 1965, at which time work commenced on a new permanent gravesite at the exact same location. This was due to heavy visitation by the public and the need for paved pathways that would not turn muddy in rain or snow. In 1967, the permanent gravesite was completed, with the eternal flame surrounded by Cape Cod field stones and selections from President Kennedy's Inaugural Address etched on marble panels that face the nation's capital. [READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE]
