I was awake and watching TV when it happened. I had attended one of his events at a local high school.
I remember it differently.
The California Primary was June 4. RFK was shot just after midnight 12:05 AM PDT.
He was brain dead about noon June 5, but that was not reported. He died early June 6 and it was announced by his press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz, at an outside microphone:
"Senator Robert Francis Kennedy," Mankiewicz’s voice cut the airwaves, "died at 1:44 a.m. today…He was 42 years old."
[that's the quote from this link, with a capital "H"]
crimelibrary.com
I remember the train down the east coast, and the crowds, but not across the whole country, east from California.
"The" train could not have left on June 5.
Here, from
en.wikipedia.org
(60% down the screen)
His body was returned to New York City, where he lay in state at St. Patrick's Cathedral for several days before the funeral mass held there. His brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, eulogized him with the words, "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it."
Senator Kennedy concluded his eulogy, paraphrasing his deceased brother Robert by quoting George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'"
Immediately following the mass, Kennedy's body was transported by special train to Washington, D.C. Thousands of mourners lined the tracks and stations, paying their respects as the train passed by.
Kennedy was buried near his brother, John, in Arlington National Cemetery. He had always maintained that he wished to be buried in Massachusetts, but his family believed that, since the brothers had been so close in life, they should be near each other in death. In accordance with his wishes, Kennedy was buried with the bare minimum military escort and ceremony. Robert Kennedy's burial at Arlington National Cemetery was the only one to ever take place at night.
So, the train from NYC to DC was several days later. |
