Sen. Edward Kennedy arrives for Mass
RELATED VIDEO CNN's Carl Rochelle reports on the continuing crash investigation. Windows Media 28K 80K Boston Bureau Chief Bill Delaney reports on the burial at sea. Windows Media 28K 80K Because the American public has felt such a desire to mourn Kennedy, a makeshift memorial has been set up, and tributes paid, outside his New York apartment. Correspondent Deborah Feyerick takes you there. Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Siobhan Darrow reports, growing numbers of Americans are choosing to be buried at sea. Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Charles Bierbauer looks at the extensive search and rescue mission and how the costs will be absorbed. Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Jamie McIntyre looks at the rescue and salvage operation. Windows Media 28K 80K CLICK HERE FOR MORE VIDEO  KENNEDY'S DESCENT: Animation: Windows Media 28K 80K  SPECIAL: Remembering John F. Kennedy Jr.   • Profile  ALSO: Click here for more stories MESSAGE BOARDS: Kennedy tragedy Chat now: JFK Jr.'s body and plane located INTERACTIVE A nation remembers Kennedy Kennedy Image Gallery

July 23, 1999
Web posted at: 11:23 a.m. EDT (1523 GMT)

In this story: The priest who married them Two eulogies Security tight Public mourning Crash investigation RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day after casting the cremated remains of the Kennedy plane crash victims into the sea, their relatives were gathering Friday for a private memorial Mass in New York.

An invitation-only group of about 350 people, including President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, was arriving at the Church of St. Thomas More on Manhattan's Upper East Side for the 11 a.m. service.

The stately, 126-year-old church is where Kennedy's mother, Jacqueline Onassis, worshipped.

The Mass was "to celebrate the lives" of John F. Kennedy Jr., 38, and his wife of nearly three years, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33.

It was to be conducted by the Rev. Charles O'Byrne, the Catholic priest who performed the couple's September 21, 1996 wedding ceremony on Cumberland Island along Georgia's Atlantic coast.

O'Byrne also participated in Thursday's private memorial aboard the USS destroyer Briscoe, from where the remains of three crash victims were released by their families into the ocean.

The Kennedys, who have lived their lives in the glare of the media spotlight, requested the service not be broadcast.

The third victim of the crash one week ago off Martha's Vineyard was Carolyn's sister, Lauren Bessette, who was 34.

She was to be remembered with a private service Saturday at an Episcopal church in her family's hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Along with members of the Kennedy family, Lauren and Carolyn Bessette's mother, Ann Freeman, and stepfather Dr. Richard Freeman, were expected at the Manhattan Mass. So was Lauren's twin sister, Lisa Ann.

The twins were the first children born to Ann and William Bessette who divorced when the girls were young.

There are to be two eulogies -- one from Sen. Edward Kennedy, John Jr.'s uncle; the other from Hamilton South, a friend of Carolyn Bessette's family.

There will be two musical performances at the Mass -- from hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean, formerly of the Fugees and the O Freedom Gospel Choir.

One of John Jr.'s cousins, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, was to accompany the Clintons to Washington.

The group that flew to New York aboard Air Force One also included Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who is married to Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle; and Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

The Church of St. Thomas More has become an impromptu shrine, much like Kennedy's apartment in New York's Tribeca neighborhood and the Boston library named for his father.

Scores of bouquets, cards and stuffed animals were left outside the church before the families' arrival.

Security in the neighborhood is tight and many of those who came to witness the comings and goings in person were stuck behind police barricades, with the church out of view.

People who live near the church have been asked to stay inside their homes until 3 p.m. Streets have been closed to and residents were told parking garages would be shut.

Mourners light candles in memory of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister Lauren

The privacy of the occasion -- and of Thursday's service aboard the Briscoe -- contrasted with a public Mass held by New York's Irish community.

Thousands gathered Thursday at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in the city's Little Italy section, to honor Kennedy, his wife and her sister.

Their bodies were recovered Wednesday in the waters off Martha's Vineyard. Authorities said the three were killed on impact when the single-engine plane piloted by Kennedy spiraled into Atlantic Ocean.

The medical examiner who conducted autopsies said the three victims all died instantaneously from multiple trauma injuries caused by the plane crash.

Pieces of wreckage from Kennedy's plane recovered from the ocean floor -- including an 8- to 10-foot section of the fuselage -- were being carried ashore aboard the USS Grasp. The Navy salvage ship was due to dock Friday in Newport, Rhode Island.

From there, the wreckage of the single-engine Piper Saratoga was to be trucked to Otis Air National Guard base on Cape Cod in neighboring Massachusetts. That's where investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will examine the pieces, trying to determine the cause of the accident.

The NTSB has said its probe could take six to nine months.

Correspondents Gary Tuchman, Carl Rochelle, Gene Randall contributed to this report, written by Jim Morris

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