Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leaves the memorial Mass
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July 23, 1999
Web posted at: 2:18 p.m. EDT (1818 GMT)

In this story: Eulogies, music Clintons attend Separate service for Bessette sisters White House photo albums for families Security tight Public mourning Crash investigation RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Kennedy plane crash victims were remembered Friday for how they lived, not how they died, in a private memorial Mass in New York attended by hundreds of people -- relatives, friends, politicians and celebrities -- who came together in mourning one week after the deaths.

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

John Jr.'s sister, Caroline, the last surviving child of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was among dozens of Kennedy family members who attended the Mass of Resurrection at the Church of St. Thomas More on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The stately, 126-year-old church is where Jacqueline Onassis worshipped until her death in 1994.

Caroline did not speak during the service, but two eulogies were delivered from an altar decorated simply with a spread of white roses.

One was from Sen. Edward Kennedy, an uncle who became a surrogate father to his nephew and niece after President Kennedy's 1963 assassination; the other was from Hamilton South, a friend of Carolyn Bessette's family.

There were two musical performances -- from hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean, formerly of the Fugees, and the O Freedom Gospel Choir. Jean sang the Jimmy Cliff reggae anthem "Many Rivers to Cross," according to The Associated Press.

The Catholic priest who presided at the Mass, the Rev. Charles O'Byrne, performed John Jr. and Carolyn's September 21, 1996 wedding ceremony on remote Cumberland Island along Georgia's Atlantic coast.

O'Byrne also participated in Thursday's private memorial aboard the USS destroyer Briscoe, from where the cremated 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.

President Clinton leaves the Mass

The 350 invited guests included President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter Chelsea.

Also: JFK Jr. hero Muhammad Ali, cousins Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Maria Shriver, her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and CNN Senior International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, a longtime friend.

Emotionally drained mourners, led by Sen. Kennedy, began emerging from the church about 12:30 p.m., about 90 minutes after the service began. The Clintons stayed inside another half hour.

After the memorial, the congregation was invited to walk two blocks to the landmark School of the Sacred Heart for a reception. Caroline Kennedy once attended the independent girls school.

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

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

Their mother and stepfather, Dr. Richard Freeman and his wife, Ann, were among the first to arrive at the Church of St. Thomas More for Friday's Mass.

Lauren's twin sister, Lisa Ann, also attended, as did her father, William. The twins were the first children born to Ann and William Bessette, who divorced when the girls were young.

President Clinton has given photo albums containing pictures of John and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's visit to the White House to the couple's family members

The group that flew with the Clintons from Washington aboard Air Force One included Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who is married to Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; another of his daughters, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle; and Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

Clinton brought with him three identical albums of White House photographs taken when he gave John and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy a tour there last year. The albums were to be given to Sen. Edward Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and the family of Carolyn and Lauren Bessette.

Clinton also ordered flags over the White House flown at half-staff for the day.

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 was 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.

"I'm very sad and I think the country is very sad," said one woman. "I wanted to pay my respects to my memories of the Kennedy family and to the legacy that JFK Jr. is leaving to America and to the world, even though his mission was incomplete."

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 Chris Black, John King, Gary Tuchman, Carl Rochelle, Gene Randall contributed to this report, written by Jim Morris

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