A Nation Remembers: A Tribute to John F. Kennedy

On November 22, 2013, the Kennedy Library invited the public to join a special live webcast of a musical tribute in honor of the memory of President Kennedy. Award-winning singer-songwriter James Taylor; award-winning saxophonist Paul Winter and the Paul Winter Sextext, which was invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to be the first jazz ensemble ever to play at the White House; and the United States Naval Academy Women's Glee Club performed musical selections including two from the President's State Funeral. They were joined by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; Elaine Jones, director-counsel emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and former Peace Corps volunteer to Turkey; US Naval Commander, Navy SEAL, and NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy, who just returned from six months on the International Space Station; Richard Blanco, poet for the 2013 U.S. presidential inauguration; and Sarah Groustra, an 8th grade student from the Edward Devotion School in Brookline, Massachusetts that John F. Kennedy attended as a child, who all read excerpts from a selection of President Kennedy's most historic speeches. The ceremony included a moment of silence at 2:00 p.m., the time that the President's death was announced to the nation.