Remembering JFK on his 100th birthday
The slain president would have turned 100 on May 29, 2017.
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- In this September 19, 1960 file photo, John F. Kennedy is greeted by Governor J. Millard Tawes and Louis Grasmick. (George Cook/Baltimore Sun)
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- Visitors stand as Taps is played during a wreath laying ceremony at the grave of former President John F. Kennedy, to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 29, 2017. Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
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- Army Major Gen. Michael Howard, commanding general of the Military District of Washignton, far left, and Karen Durham-Aquilera, executive director of Army National Cemeteries, lay a wreath at the grave of former President John F. Kennedy, to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 29, 2017. Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
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- The Army Old Guard color guard stands watch during a wreath laying ceremony, at the grave of former President John F. Kennedy, to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 29, 2017. Kennedy was born May 29, 1917. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
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- Army Major Gen. Michael Howard, commanding general of the Military District of Washignton, left, and Karen Durham-Aquilera, executive director of Army National Cemeteries, lay a wreath at the grave of former President John F. Kennedy, to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 29, 2017. Kennedy was born May 29, 1917 . (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
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- In this 1962 file photo, President John F. Kennedy and his daughter, Caroline, sail off Hyannis Port, Mass. Caroline Kennedy said in a video released by the JFK Library on May 25, 2017, that she thought about her father and “missed him every day of my life.” The 100th anniversary of JFK’s birth is Monday, May 29, 2017. (AP Photo, File)
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- Caroline Kennedy and her brother, John Jr., accompany their mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, down the steps of Washington’s St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church after the funeral Mass for their father, assassinated President John F. Kennedy November 25, 1963, John Jr.’s third birthday. (AP Photo)
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- President John F. Kennedy with his mother, Rose, at White House dinner in 1962. (Baltimore Sun archives)
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- Senator Kennedy’s visit to Baltimore in 1962 during his presidential campaign. (Baltimore Sun archives)
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- John F. Kennedy a young boy. Monday, May 29, 2017 marks the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Kennedy, who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. (Baltimore Sun archives)
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- Undated photo of President John F. Kennedy with his son, John, Jr. (Baltimore Sun archive)
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- In this February 3, 1960 file photo, Senator John F. Kennedy (D., Mass) was joined by his wife Jackie and Governor J. Millard Tawes at the State House late yesterday as he signed papers making his entry into the Maryland Presidential primary a matter of record. (Ralph Robinson/Baltimore Sun)
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- September 3, 1960 – Then-Senator John F. Kennedy campaigns in Maryland. (Frank Gardina/Baltimore Sun)
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- In this October 10, 1958 file photo, then-Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy (left) with Baltimore mayor Thomas D’Alesandro before a Democratic rally. Both are Senate candidates. (Baltimore Sun archives)
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- November 5, 1962: President Kennedy visits his 97-year-old grandmother, Mrs. John F. Fitzgerald. (Baltimore Sun Archives)
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- In this June 22, 1946 file photo, John F. Kennedy, winner of the Democratic Nomination for Congress in the 11th Massachusetts District, relaxes with his dog, Mo, in Hyannis Port, Mass. Monday, May 29, 2017 marks the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Kennedy, who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. (AP Photo/Peter J. Carroll, File)
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- In this 1938 file photo, John F. Kennedy, right, poses aboard an ocean liner with his father Joseph P. Kennedy, center, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, and brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., left. Monday, May 29, 2017 marks the 100-year anniversary of the birth of John F. Kennedy, who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. (AP Photo, File)
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- Kennedy with his famy in photo dated March 1938. Monday, May 29, 2017 marks the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Kennedy, who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. (Baltimore Sun archives)
In 1967, just three years after Kennedy’s assassination, columnist Gerald Griffin remembered the president on what would have been his 50th birthday.
“Today, but for an assassin’s bullet, John F. Kennedy would have been observing his fiftieth birthday, and many a learned column would have been written by this time on the significance of this human milestone. But now he seems forever young to those who knew him and sparkle he gave to our national life. Three years and six months after his death he still is a vivid figure. The recapitulation of the Kennedy tragedy still is, for many Americans, a searing personal experience.”
Fifty years later, fewer Americans have a direct memory of JFK’s assassination; they were born after it happened. Yet his memory lingers on in the buildings and institutions named after him, and in the eternal flame at Arlington cemetery which continues to burn to this day.
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