have a good afternoon i will see you on thursday. >> put it away, cannot win. we must find common ground as a basis for survival and development, and change, and growth. as many of you know, te

most divisive perhaps one of the most divisive elections in our nation's history was the election hundred president john adams ultimately lost as many of you know, what are the most divisive elections in our nation's history was the

election of 1800. president john adams ultimately lost to vice president thomas jefferson, and all the transfer of power was ultimately peaceful, adamson did forgo his successors' inauguration. i think that has also happened another time or two, but i won't. those two men actually remain at odds for many, many years. it was only later, during their retirement, did they actually rekindle the friendship, discussing many different topics in their correspondence, including the topic of death. adams actually wrote to jefferson in 1822 these words, quote, i answer your question, is death an evil. it is not an

evil. it is a blessing to the individual and to the world. yet, we all not wish for it until life becomes insupportable , end quote. he was 86 years old when he wrote this note, perhaps, adams had become comfortable with the idea of leaving the world, but it was four years later that both men, adams and jefferson, passed away the same exact day, july 4th, 1826, and while he was not present when his father died, john quincy adams later recorded his father's last words , three very poignant words, thomas jefferson survives. he had no way of knowing

jefferson had died the very same day. as americans then gathered across the country to honor the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence, news of adams and jefferson's passing spread, and what had begun as a month of celebration was not one of mourning and commemoration. the citizens began to listen to eulogies, speeches, and tributes in churches, government buildings, and in public spaces. while jefferson and adams had their own opinions on how they should be remembered, it would be up to those living in 1826 and successive generations, even up to now, to define and shape the memory. presidential sites, such as yours, are frequently called upon to discuss the legacies of people who have held the highest office in our country. one-way this one very

important, iconic way -- as we all know, these men will eventually die -- it is how that death is marked and remembered that it comes very important. our next panel will provide wonderful and different perspectives on this process. one of our panelists is actually planning a presidential funeral. one is a historian, and another overseas presidential site defined by tragedy. these three participants will give greater insight into how these rituals and events changed over time, and how we can use moments like this to better understand the relationship between the american people and the president of the united states. as well as how presidential mourning, at any given time, can reflect different elements of american society, politics, and culture. our moderator for this session

is john high bridge, executive director of the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute, and before i introduce the other panelist, i just want to take a a moment of personal privilege here and recognize john's 12 years of transformational leadership at the reagan foundation. i had the privilege of working for and with john for several years in planning the reagan centennial, and he was a great friend, great leader, and certainly, has been extraordinary in transforming the work of the reagan foundation and preserving and continuing to advance the legacy of our 40th president of the united states. congratulations. joining john on stage, my friend, jean baker, former chief of staff to president george h. w. bush,

lewis picone, board trustee for the cleveland birthplace memorial association, and author of "grant's tomb: the epic death of ulysses s grant and the making of an american pantheon," and nichola, executive author of the sixth floor museum at the daley plaza. nichola, thank you so much for welcoming our wonderful guests to museum. please welcome us and our panel as we continue the program. >> thank you so much. as stewart mentioned, he and i have had the chance to work together in the past, from the red cross, and stewart was just -- absolutely -- not ahead of the reagan centennial in 2007.

he saved me from one disaster or another -- or at the reagan library -- wonderful to be with you all this morning. you know, i had a little trepidation when stewart told me that what he wanted me to discuss with our panels is death, destruction, and tragedy, and i thought, okay, this will be quite a challenge, but when i saw who are panelists or that you will be hearing from this morning, it is really -- this is -- i think you are going to learn a lot. you will find this to be a real pleasure, even though the subject is a difficult one, well, for all americans. you will learn more about that in just a moment. i did a little bit of homework. i am not a good mathematician, but i delved into some of the

documents that the white house association pulled together on this very topic of presidential funerals, assassinations, mourning and the like, you know, and today, we have six living presidents, including a current president in the white house. 32 have died outside of the white house of various natural causes. eight presidents have died while in office, four of those, assassinated. as you can imagine, depending on the circumstances, very, very different situations with respect to american and mourning depending on the particular president. these experts have studied just about every single one of them. so, when we get to the q&a portion, have your questions ready. i think we know, today, americans are having quite a

lot of difficulty unifying, coming together, on just about anything, but when you experience -- when you plan, when you study the death of the united states president, we find that -- some of these very rare moments for americans -- actually come together as a people to mourn. whether it be an incredible shock of an assassination of a president, or the natural passing of a president, the mourning is there. i read in one of the papers that talked about how there -- the quote is -- no greater shock for the country than the passing of a president, and i remember that, for example, i am probably one of the elder statesman here today.

i remember the passing of john f. kennedy. i was just a mere 5 years old, but it was the very first memory i have as a young boy, and i remember when i was living in arlington, virginia, i heard this thunderous noise outside our home, and i ran out into our backyard, and overhead with the jets that were flying, the man formation, moving their way across the skyline of washington, d.c., then i ran down to our black-and-white television set to see the very same jets on television. it was my very first memory, a memory i will not forget. i thought about it as i was studying up on our panelists. what you will find is that presidential funerals, presidential mourning is all

about processions, lying in state, rider-less horses, teams of six white horses, in the modern-day, television roadblock coverage across all of the networks, presidential library burials. i would like to start with a show of hands. can everyone who has fully planned and executed, involved presidential funeral please raise your hand? >> you are setting me up. >> i am. now, everyone who has been to a presidential funeral -- one of the event -- or has washed one on tv, raise your hand. okay. there's a lot more of the second and the first. so, i would like us to start off by talking with someone who

has done it all. becker -- jean, take us behind the scenes of what it is like to plan and involve herself in the whole blown modern-day presidential funeral. >> yeah complete chaos, and what you see on tv -- i hope -- looked really organized, very together -- it is chaos, and it is a process that goes on for years, and years, and i decided the best way to answer your question, i'm not here to promote my book, but my editor would want me to show this. the last chapter is called "the long journey home." i am just going to read something i put in the book, talking about planning the funeral this is before president bush died.

one day, in maine, when i had worked all day at the funeral, i came home to houseguests who were ready to do something fun for the evening. i was exhausted and a little frustrated at some of the problems i knew i had to solve. all i wanted to do was drink a bottle of wine and collapse. one my friends was not amused, and with major attitude, she said, i don't understand what the big deal was. you have been planning this funeral for years. how is it you are not done yet? what is the big deal? my answer, i had a lot of attitude. just imagine, you are in charge of an event that will take place over six days with three, maybe four -- if he died in maine, it would have been four -- if in cities, and involves a cast of thousands, including presidents, queens, kings, members of a very large family that live all over the united states, who need to be moved

from where they live to houston, to washington, back to houston, to college station, and back to their homes, all of which will be carried live, on television, morning, noon, and night, for six days. and you have no idea what is going to happen. none. when it does happen, you have about 48 hours before it all begins to all go together, before the show begins, live on television the next six days. you won't sleep, you won't eat, you won't really think. you just do. my friend never asked that question again. so, it is just -- one of the dumbest fights i ever had was with the man who was in charge of the super bowl in houston, and we literally had to fight about whose job was harder. i said, you know when the super bowl is. and he said, -- i know you will

agree with me -- he says, but i don't know the teams until two weeks out. you know who is going to die. i said, seriously? >> jean and i have a very close mutual friend, and when i first met her, she works at the reagan foundation library, one of the very first things that she showed to me when i took on this job was a three-ring binder , and i think stuart has seen this, about this big, about 6 inches thick, and it was the planning -- it was the plans that the staff had put together for president reagan's funeral. so, i know of what jean talks about, and reagan's was just as thick. >> can i just add, quickly, that after president reagan died -- after president ford died -- after nancy reagan died, all joanne -- wrote long

the most to me -- president ford, the man in charge of his funeral, they wrote me along, and they became my bible of how to do a funeral. it saved my life, and i did the same for the chiefs of staff for president bush, 43, obama, clinton, ann carter. i wrote this long memo, what went right, what went wrong, and we can talk about, later, some of those big challenges, but those memos saved my life. >> yeah. in a moment, we will talk about the sharing of those memos, but this is one of those best laid plans of mice and men, and i want to put a photo up and ask jean to comment. here we go. jean, best laid plans. sometimes, there are big surprises, might be an inspector moments for presidential heroes. here is just one.

>> this is one of the best on inspecting moments of president bush's funeral. many of you will remember that president bush and bob dole were big local rivals. they had a very nasty 1988 republican primary contest, and they both said some things he probably wish they hadn't said. they became huge friends, and when senator dole -- this is when president bush is lying in state at the rotunda -- he insisted on standing. also, saluting the casket. he is in a wheelchair now. i had an opportunity to ask him why he did this, why he insisted on standing, and i can tell you the answer without crying. he said, i had to stand and salute that great man. this was one of the big pictures of the funeral that went viral. everyone -- it was just such a wonderful moment. >> lewis? why so much spectacle?

everyone passes at some time or another, but why with the pop and the circumstance -- what is the history behind it? >> good question. it is something that is built up over time, and eugene is hinting that all of these plans, going into 6 days of the funeral, going back to the beginning with george washington, with the very first presidential funeral in 1799, just to show how far we have come. george washington, in his will, asks for no funeral adoration. he didn't want any funeral, c- span of the reasons that i surmise is that washington had such a strong sense of republican virtue, and that, in america, our leaders were citizens first, and we were much different from the monarchs and the tyrants of old york, so he had asked for no funeral.

washington was a freemason, so the freemasons had asked if they could hold the funeral for him, and they did. i think there's maybe an image of the funeral, and it was just a couple of 100 marketers in the funeral. he died, at mount vernon, but the funeral did set some precedence s, the 21-ben sluga, the rider-less course that we still see today, and with advances in technology today, and as the country grew, funerals began to become more elaborate, and significantly, when a president died in office like william henry harrison, the first president to die in office in washington, d.c., there was a funeral procession which might -- a little bit --

resemble what we see today with hundreds of marchers that march from the white house to congressional cemetery -- temporarily interred -- and then over time -- again, with advances in technology like the train, and with embalming -- with abraham lincoln -- where there can be these more elaborate, elongated ceremonies before the president was interred, but still, these modest funerals would still be, in practice, even to the 1900s, grover cleveland's funeral, from beginning, from when the funeral first started at his home in princeton, to when he was placed in the ground, was barely one hour, princeton, new jersey. extremely modest calvin coolidge's was probably the last of the modest funerals in 1932, just several hundred

guests attending his funeral in northampton, massachusetts. after that, we see where franklin roosevelt died in office in 1945, and there was this major event, but it was unplanned, because no one inspected him to die, and that leads us into john f. kennedy, the next president that died, and very quickly, after john f. kennedy, who also died unplanned -- is when presidents started to do this preplanning of funerals, and one turned into three, and that grew over time that is when we see the modern day state funeral that we are so familiar with now really start to form after kennedy and herbert hoover's was the first that had that preplanning that had gone into it. >> yeah. as you have pointed -- both pointed to -- the planned element of it is genius.

okay, you don't know when it is going to happen. my gosh, with john f. kennedy, you really, really don't know when it is going to occur, yet, the funeral still needs to take place, and needs to take place relatively quickly. so, nicola, if you can talk to us, you have got the sam lewis museum in dallas, a six-four museum, and a great deal of it covers jfk's funeral. how were they able to do that? >> i think the last thing the presidential couple expected when they made their visit texas and dallas was to have the four days in november and a national funeral uniting the world in sorrow. but mrs. kennedy was inspired by lincoln's funeral procession. so, with great detail did she plan that, and with enormous grace and support from her team, but the museum really

chronicles the assassination and addresses those chaotic days leading up to the assassination, the aftermath, and how the nation and the world were, and why there's still questions today. >> yeah. i remember, at the time, i grew up and found a book on our so- called "the long torch is passed," about the jfk funeral. member leafing through it and seeing these iconic images of the funeral. i thought i would pull one up. yeah. tell us about this moment. that one of the strengths about museum collection is that we have been given, donated, so many wonderful images and films and home movies by innocent bystanders. this photo was taken by dr. connell, before and after the assassination, he was here,

documenting this tragic, very sad moment mrs. kennedy coming out with the children with little "john-john" raising his hand in salute. we have a lot of materials we haven't been able to anticipate .this is an example of when people i wanted to express from powerful memories, but it has much rich texture and dimension from the stories we can do through programming. >> nikolai, tell me -- i will use the word tourist site, and whether we are dealing with ford lincoln assassination, or your own exhibit, tell me, how do museums exhibit, evolved, dealing with an assassination when you are rubbing up against something so truly delicate -- the mourning -- how does a community come together and decide it is time for us to

commemorate this? does it take a long while? does it happen instantly? >> it takes a very long time. on the day of the assassination, the grassy knoll plaza became an instant memorial site. the city was overwhelmed with mourners coming to try to understand what had happened. our story has been a very long journey, one of great struggle, and endurance over the decades. the assassination took place in 1963. the six world music mix of it didn't open until 1989, and in 1993, the dealey plaza area was designated as a national historic landmark district designation. the museum opened after at least a decade of struggles, trying to figure out what to do with that building. dallas county saved the building and turned it into dallas county administered offices through the first and fifth floors. the sift of the sixth floor was

left vacant, and wonderful lady , becoming a fairy godmother -- adames -- the chairwoman of the dallas county historical commission, and she, along with civic leaders, lobbied -- throughout salas what does dallas -- to explain to the world the events that led up to the assassination. we had to find a way to address all of the people that were at daley plaza, trying to seek their own meeting, their own peace in this tragic piece of history. >> yeah. jean? i didn't figure this out until i went to the reagan, but you know it is on the tip of your tongue. how do you approach a president to say, listen, it is time to start talking about your death? how -- how soon will a president engage in this sophisticated

planning effort, in this, a delicate moment? >> so many ways, i had the best job in america, being george bush's chief of staff. he loved talking about his funeral. first of all comment to answer part of your question, i think this is because of the assassination of kennedy. you have your first funeral meeting in the white house when you are president. obviously, i was not a part of that meeting, but i know that they make sitting presidents at least do some kind of outline of a funeral, in case he dies in office. so, when i became his chief in staff, i inherited a very small boulder of plans, and by the time we were done, it was a credenza. after he turned maybe 80, once a year, i said, we need to talk about your

funeral, and he is like, oh, good, and i know that is really odd. the other thing he did is, every presidential funeral he attended, he changed his mind about something. after president nixon's, he decided to be buried in his library. he and president bush would be buried in port maine. after president reagan's, he decided he did not want to ride on his horse. he thought it was too dramatic. after president ford's, he wanted all the same music. my two favorite phone calls, though, vince bocock and henry kissinger after resident ford's. they informed me that no one who was 80 or older should be honorary pallbearers, because they were exhausted, and they were cold, and they were hungry , and so, i told president bush -- you know what we did? honoring pallbearers with the captains of the "uss george h.w. bush," we kicked out of all

people. then the fourth, and george hw bush's funeral, everybody talked except for me, and no one talks more than 10 minutes. 10 minutes. got it? i'm like, yes, sir. president bush -- is this time to talk about the trying? >> we will get to that. >> should we save that for later? >> yes. >> we will save it for later. >> he enjoyed talking about the funeral. one quick story -- this is a little bizarre -- but even with the national media, they have to get really organized, because they also hit the ground running, and the networks divide up who will be the pool cover for the big events. fox news was the pool camera at the gravesite, and they called and wanted permission to come -- and we ended up closing it to the media -- the burial turned out to be 100% private, but for a while, it was going

to be a pool camera. i just told president bush, as an fyi, i sent, you will not believe this, but fox news is advancing the gravesite at the library today. he says, i have an idea. he says, i want to go, and when they get out there, i will be laying on top of the grave with my arms crossed like i am dead. i said, no. you are not doing that. >> i told you, this would not be all that is >> yeah. >> lewis? >> how is it, in america, the death of a president drives, ever so briefly -- i want to know why so briefly -- is wallets of national reconciliation? >> yeah. well, a president is one person who unites everyone. we all vote for president. the president represents everyone. so, presidential funerals, traditionally, when the nation

is divided, is something that unites us, and throughout history, there have been periods of reconciliation, some briefly, some more permanent, that have come out of it, that have -- where the presidential funeral has been the catalyst, and one of the brief examples of this can go back to washington's funeral again, when the country was becoming greatly divided over the formation of political parties -- and george washington's funeral briefly brought together the federalist and democratic republicans to mourn together, but ultimately, political forces were at play that were bigger than george washington's death. a couple of successful examples of how presidential funerals and presidential deaths have really been catalysts for change, one being, after james garfield had died, when he was

assassinated, one of the reasons -- of the dividing issues at the time -- was over civil service. and the spoils part. of that assassination, shortly after, the act had been signed and the reform begins to take shape. perhaps, one of the most potent examples of reconciliation being spawned by a presidential death and funeral is ulysses s. grant's, because grant had died 20 years after the civil war, so a generation after the civil war when the country is still greatly divided, north and south, but grant was really, perhaps, the one individual that was beloved, north and south of the mason dixon line -- and dying a generation after the civil war, the nation was really ready for reconciliation, so, he was really the perfect man at

almost the perfect time to really bring about some of that reconciliation. during his funeral, there confederate marchers who march with, predominantly, union, would also confederate marchers. there's two former confederate generals, pallbearers, and his funeral, and his tomb, which comes 12 years later, in 1897, really becomes a place where all sections of society come to mourn and pay respects at the same location. again, this north and south of the border, there's white americans, african americans, men and women, democrats, republicans, and he is really the one man -- and this becomes, perhaps, the one placed a can really bring about this reunification. we know the history of reunification, that it was

largely also -- the reunification of the north and the south -- was also built upon african americans in the south losing their civil rights. unfortunately, that is a very important part of this story too, but grant's funeral was a point that really began to reform the united states of america that had still been greatly divided in 1885. >> nicola, back to assassinations for a moment, again, fortunately, the exhibit at the reagan library portrays what was an attempted assassination, but in jfk's case, an actual assassination and death of a president. how do you go about determining what artifacts, what objects

involving an assassination are appropriate for public display? i am sure that must be a difficult situation. >> i will get to that in a moment, but i will say, john hinckley, who attempted to assassinate president reagan, actually lived in dallas. that was another shot for dallas , still reeling from the effects of being where the president lost his life. president kennedy's assassination happened at the dawn of television and satellite broadcasting. the news ricocheted all around the world, and there's been an outpouring of interest all across the world since the assassination, and finding out what happened. so, people come to dallas trying to seek meaning, and be careful crafting of the original exhibit, john f. kennedy and a member of the nation, was designed to reach people who had lived through this traumatic time. the idea was not that this was a museum or a

memorial. this was an exhibit that would help put into context historical context, events that had happened, and to allow those people -- the remembers as we call them -- to find their own solace and reflect. they had no idea that, 33 years later, there would be a six-floor museum at dealey plaza, an accredited museum by american alliance for museums, and also, holding 19,000 artifacts. originally, the exhibit had very few artifacts. it was designed, really, to be a sort of floating, chronological look at the events leading up to president kennedy's trip to texas, what was the climate in dallas at the time, the enormous welcome reception, and the wonderful motorcade, and going through dealey plaza, designed as a wpa project, as a gateway into the city, and still works as such. nobody could imagine what had happened, but then the series

investigation afterwards -- and the responsibility of the original project developers was to address the controversy, but walk a very fine line to be factually-based, not to tell you what to believe, but to lead the visitor through and come to their own conclusions at the very end. so, over time, we have tried to update the exhibit, putting more artifacts in as we have been lucky recipients of donations, and there's a gentleman here, also, who has had a very important artifact, and that is the place setting that would have been the trademark for the president.the we have taken our display of artifacts very carefully. it is not ripley's believe it or not. most of the evidentiary materials in the national archives, we will see in our

lifetimes. the most controversial artifact that we put on display in preparation for the 50th anniversary of commemoration was the rifle. an exact copy used to assassinate the president. displayed. some people don't even notice it. another artifact was the wedding ring left on the dressing room or nightstand. $187. we wanted to display these things to promote questioning. what was behind the mind-set? had he not left his ring and money and has the argued with his wife the night before when he had taken the drastic options that you did for such tragedy. >> jean, we have talked about

planning and the rest of that but you also touched on how different with different presidents, it might be presidents of opposite parties and. seems to have developed in modern times like him already. does not work amongst presidential staff. reaching out to help each other in these really difficult times. talk about that a little. it really is. we have each other's back. as i mentioned earlier, certainly president reagan's chief of staff. it was really the lawyer who planned his funeral. they give you a heads up of the landmines that are ahead. they saved my life.

and one of the bigger challenges, one of the challenges i face is. for the state funeral in washington, d.c., all of congress is invited and their spouse. all the governors are invited and their spouses. they don't all come. what happens is about 5:00 the night before the funeral, you find how many tickets come back to you. 5:00 the night before. work so fast footed for a couple of reasons that they boy scouts. i was ready because they wanted me to be ready. i way over invited. for about 12 hours, we had 281 people coming that i did not have a seat four.

the funeral team was very nervous. i was a size 6 when president bush died. i'm just saying. sure enough at 5:00 the night before the funeral, i got 500 feet back and i was ready. 281 already been invited. i will not go into detail but there were other -- we filled the receipt. one of the pieces of advice they gave me was to identify a group of people who you could invite a last-minute. to be your seat filler. we chose the caa. i asked them if they could use some tickets in the end and they were thrilled. i had 75 seats left and i gave them to the cia and i said i will need names because the security was very tight, as you can imagine. those were my favorite moments.

the person into the phone says don't worry about that. >> you know you got to love those guys. but that's just an example of working together. now all of the chiefs of staff now, they know. be ready for those seats to come back to you. >> lewis, you mentioned it and as did you, jean. the concept of trains. i want to put up a photograph for people to see. where do the tradition start? when do they stop? >> the first president was placed was william henry harrison. that was not part of his

funeral. listen temporary turned. the first funeral train was 1848 when john quincy adams died. he had died in washington, d.c. he was also temporarily interned but for a shorter term. a congressional cemetery before being brought up north to boston to be buried in quincy. it was not really meant to be a funeral train. it was meant to be a form of transportation to take north but meanwhile, people would gather at the tracks and men would take off their hats and it really became a place of morning. the funeral track. for people who did not have the means to go to the funeral or

did not have to go to quincy for any ceremonies, able to have their brief moment with the former president to pay their respects. abraham lincoln funeral in 1865. probably the funeral train that is the most famous. i mentioned earlier, there is intersection of railroad technology and also embalming which was perfected during the civil war. which was 1700 miles away from where he was assassinated. there was a long funeral train that spanned two weeks. stopped in multiple cities where abraham lincoln's remains were removed from the train and put out for public viewing in a

prominent building. during the 1700 miles, there was hundreds and hundreds of displays and people that would be singing hymns. to pay their respect. in the end, there was millions and millions of people either thought one of the many processions or were along those railroad tracks. there was a very personal way that people could pay their respects to the president and the coffin would be placed on display with windows so people can actually see the coffin with a best buy. overtime, with technology changing, but funeral train when our style, if you will. dwight eisenhower's funeral in 1869 was the last funeral train

before resident bushes. one of the reasons reportedly was because he did not like the fight. preferred the train. but it's very important because it really creates a way for everyday citizens to be able to pay their respects. >> present as an hours. i grew up on a farm in missouri and his train went to my hometown and we definitely went. can they see the pictures are seeing? you can? there we go. president bush loved trains. he was in love with trains. his second funeral service was in houston. that was the family and friends funeral. he was buried at his library

about and he wanted to train. he loved talking about this train. please don't judge me but when they were talking about the training he so excited. he really viewed his funeral as a big event. he says jean will be great. we will be exhausted. from of the event. we can visit, rest before the burial. i don't know why. he said jean, i will be on the train. i may not eat lunch but i will be on the train. this is a union pacific train. they had especially made. under a tarp, unveiled.

you are all invited. this was an amazing train. with one of the more touching moments. the track was just like the historic trains but there was a group of cowboys waiting on their horses and as the train went by, they tipped their cowboy hats. what i did not know until later, there was about 20 cowboys that the engineer decided to toot the horn to greet them and most of the horses ran off. these were the only five left. we all cried. it was really special. there had been 20 of them. i do not know what we would have done. it was a really special part of his funeral. >> great story. i got 100 more questions what a few of them in the audience to

as well. we are bringing microphones up front. i promise if you are too afraid to ask a question, i've got a lot more. if you would, we got 20 minutes for questions. please feel free to come forward. >> i do not have a question but i wanted to give you an eyewitness account of being in the capital. when they brought the casket in. my father was a united states senator from the state of wyoming. on the day of the capital event, he put the family in the car and said let's go down. let me see if i can get you into the capital. we drove downtown and we could not get anywhere. it was total gridlock.

doing that the window and to a policeman, i am senator mcgee, i need to be in the capital. immediately, he got us a police escort who took us over to constitution avenue. the site that jackie kennedy would be on just a few minutes later. we drove by all the faces that she would see and we were taken behind the capital where all the dark cars were parked. my dad drove a blue and white chrysler with big fins on the tail end our car was parked right in there and appeared in all the pictures we were taken up the steps into the capital and put right behind where the

casket was. this is kennedy. i think only carolyn came up to the casket. it was that far away from me. it was the first time i had ever had experienced death. i finally, i was trying to hold back tears. i did not want to cry in front of my father but i started to cry. right as i was wiping a tear away, a reporter snapped my picture. i had but my parents never told me that it appeared in different places around the country. it has become a big treasure of mine. then my father told me however many days later that they put in the bus all the senators and

drove them out to arlington. and he was there. when he turned around and have never seen this report. was standing by himself under a tree. behind all this people. i wanted to relay that story because it was personal. i am the only one who was there but. >> can ask how old you were at the time? >> i was probably about 16. >> thank you so much for sharing this story. this is still very much a living memory and it is important to report all these memories. we would be delighted. we have over 2000. i have so much dimension to our storytelling and we do wonderful, public programs and they are all on youtube. that is a shameless promotion for looking at a youtube

channel. people like you sharing their memories, thank you. >> i know how important those are to a museum. i really do hope you get together with her. >> good morning. my name is tracy with the calvin coolidge presidential foundation. thank you all for being here this morning. on three occasions, mr. coolidge wore a black armband as a symbol of mourning warren g harding. on the death of his 16-year-old son calvin junior and on the death of his father, colonel coolidge. i was wondering if any of you can comment on the tradition of wearing a black armband as a sign of warning. when did it start and when did it seem to go out of fashion? >> i know that i should be able to comment on this but unfortunately, i do not know the history of that. it's something that is not really in style now. you don't really see it now.

unfortunately, that's with a good question. >> thank you, sir. nikolai, i had the privilege of marching in president kennedy's inaugural parade and also, that was my. in my first class year, i had the privilege of leading the honor company. the u.s. -- the national geographic magazine took a picture at the lincoln memorial. he was the marine banned west point. the naval academy, the air

force academy, and finally, the coast guard academy. and that is a memory i will take to my grave. i was the class of 1964. this was september of 25, 1963. i can remember the people on the street and in the trees to get a better view of the funeral procession. being in tears and my question for you is we all remember john john's salute in front of the

catholic church. do you know of any background on that salute? >> i think he might've been prompted salute. i think that is what the historical record is but i cannot verify that. >> i think that that is the case where jackie had prompted to salute his father. it was his birthday too. it happened to be john john's third birthday. >> i also do want to thank you again for sharing memories. this is just an example. when it was created in 1989 after a decade, a lot of controversy after it opened. we are not afraid of dealing with controversy. we walk a very fine line. what really adds power and meaning to storytelling is the stories that you've shared. it's so important to collect them now and as we reach out to

younger generations to understand why this is such a significant event of the 20th century and why it's still controversial. my president kennedy's legacy still inspires us to become and back to the conversation that we have had over the last couple of days about civic engagement, leadership, educating our youth. these are all points that i hope we will take the 250th anniversary of his country. >> yeah. correspondent prior to this event. i know one of the topics that you wrote about was the moments that we are seeing here. these exhibits or museums really provide an opportunity for closure. i sense that's the case for so many. >> are exhibit was designed to help closure. as generational.

and to be more inclusive because so many people were affected by the assassination and one of the difficult challenges that we have here. there are multiple we have learning opportunities. will be the museum as we have more space to expand and showcase artifacts. i think all of us are talking about relevancy. how do we empower our youth to be curious about the past and find meaning of the present and to take action in shaping the future. >> yeah, yes. >> thank you. i do have a question. i have a friend who is a historian at independence hall in philadelphia. he tells me to get so many phone calls. so-and-so found so and so in

the attic which is a copy of the declaration of independence. so-and-so has this bit of evidence. but as far as cold heart, not evidence but do you ever get new photographs that date of people who come forward? i know many of them went to the fbi or under investigation but do you ever see people that come out and say these are photographs from that day in the early plaza. >> believe it or not, yes. we do. and i am looking at my stuff over here deals with the collections and education. surprisingly, we do still receive wonderful things that have never been seen before. a lot of people unfortunately, there is a huge private collection of kennedy memorability is. some of the things come up for auction a lot that would not belong in a museum but private hands. we want our artifacts to guide this very competent story.

so multidimensional. most of which have never been on display. our films are home movies, photographs. people don't think their materials are very consequential. i don't think this could be us as significant as but anything that can help people understand peace in the moment where there is eyewitnesses is important to us. >> i see you came in 2005 and being so immersed in what you do every day, do you personally believe there are other films out there that may show what happened. >> first, i have no personal opinions. it's possible but unlikely.

i think everybody is hoping that everything will surface but after all these years, we noticed that every year goes by and something has not surfaced. i think we worked very hard over the years because my storytelling was so to confront conspiracy a little more directly. everybody thought we were going to be some exploitive exhibit and we've worked very hard to stay as far removed from that if possible. >> thank you very much. >> i read that 60% of americans believe there is a broader. >> terribly complicated story. during the mourning ., the

shock, the above television. it was just. i don't think young people understand that chaos and how we consider it. >> you mentioned that most of these were unplanned. i was wondering if you could shed some light on how administrations would balance the expectation of showing morning for the presidency died in office in two continue to provide governance to the american people. they manage to do both. there was always the transition of power. probably had more power than johnson for a while. but the funerals were.

they were away. there was the surge especially in the case of presidential assassinations, like garfield and lincoln that was this massive public urge to say farewell and to see the president one last time with a really manage to do both. the new president wasn't largely involved. notably, harry truman was thrown into the government after a e.r. staff and really had a crash course of what was going on with the government while on the funeral train, partially while funeral train. they managed to uphold the traditions and the expectations of the public for the public funerals but the work of

government went on and lbj did the same thing very quickly. took over commands the power. air force one. while they were still at love field. yeah. there has always been that balance of retaining the secession of power to make sure that that was not disturbed while also giving attention to the public mourning . thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. my name is colleen and i live here in dallas. this is more of a story and a big honor that i've had. this is towards the end of the 80s. she came to our office when i worked at the dallas convention business bureau which is now visit dallas. i was the head of the convention services department. we had the great privilege. she was taking us there to the before anything was done. this is exactly how it looked when supposedly, shot president

kennedy. we brought our whole department which is about seven of us and they said to enter back from the back of the sixth floor to come up the back step in they would meet us there. we would get to the back steps and stand there. we were ready to open the door. nothing has been touched. it is exactly the same way it was. you go first, you go first. none of us wanted to go in because it is a part of history that is there. since i was the head of the department, he stood and looked out the window and shot him. it was one of the best experiences. exactly a place and time in history where you walk us through. where he ran out the back. if you did not get the experience, take the time tomorrow to do that. it's an unbelievable exhibit. have we ran down in the shelves

and where he went down that way. i just want to say how it was. and our whole purpose, because we got to work the whole year with her and would come into the city would have to get. and to get the children from the schools. we ran around the schools and how we told the story and how we hit all the conventions to come and our city. >> thank you very much. i would have to say is. you mentioned some of the artifacts. we could not tell our story in another place. we are very much is based and i think there's tremendous power in that. we are very fortunate that was left pretty much in its original state, thanks to involved in the project initiative. >> thank you. i think we have time for one last question. >> thank you. jennifer with the benjamin

harris site. one of the few first ladies who passed away while serving as first lady. this conversation as may be curious and to know more about presidents. what first ladies do, they also have a plan. they didn't start as they have plans in place in well. >> i can answer on behalf of barbara. are much simpler because one service in their home church, typically. she took me with her to betty ford's funeral. had two funerals, one in california and one in michigan. one of me to go with her and we talked about betty ford's funeral all the way home. it was the first meeting we had about her funeral but she was very hands on with planning the

funeral. the music. she was like her husband. they thought it was just another event. >> yeah. i just might add. three ring binder was almost as thick as for president reagan. a very sophisticated set of events that we had to execute. used to make it a practice about once a year for eight or nine years to approach to update the plan, discuss it. see if there were changes that she would want to make. perhaps she might've changed her mind over the years. i think a tremendous amount of attention. i'm going to turn to anita because she is in charge. >> before i do, because i think

we have six seconds left. i wanted to have jean comment on one particular photo that i know you're going to recognize as well. >> i wanted you to talk about. >> as president bush's -- after misses bush died, he was sad and obviously we came up with the idea, his medical aid arranged for him to have a service dog named sully who became quite famous. this was taken at the funeral home in houston the day after president bush died. evan took sully to the funeral home with him to go check on everything. he found laying in front of the casket. can't make it up. he took a picture and he came to the office and said should we send this out?

release it to the media and i said yes, i do. it will test the nation's heart. this is not famous sully was. i was telling the story. i have two members of my funeral team here. marilyn baker and lindsay reynolds were both great numbers. on air force one because it's next assignment was walter hospital. we had a problem with is going to take care during the funeral. i said let's take him with us. without permission from the air force to take him on air force one and i was given the job of walking him off air force one for some reason. i walked him off air force one in the present person at air force base came running over to me and said jean, the press wants to know. for a minute, i just assumed she was going to say they would

like to interview you. she said the press wants to know if you could not be between cilley and the camera because you are blocking sully. it was a moment. sully has an instagram account. he has 5000 followers. that is possibly the two iconic photos that came out. >> jean, louis, on behalf of this audience, i'm going to say thank you for your time. >> next leprosy sends coverage

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