20 Years After, 5,000 Attend Kennedy Rites

On a warm and humid night, more than 5,000 people gathered Monday to honor the memory of Robert F. Kennedy, standing on a hillside overlooking his grave.

During a quiet, candle-lit Mass, they recalled the words and spirit of a man who died from an assassin’s bullet 20 years ago to the day, as he campaigned for the presidency.

“We stand here in the faith that Robert Kennedy still lives . . . . We remember his deep commitment to justice and compassion and his belief that each of us must take on the responsibility to make this a better world,” said the Rev. Gerard Creedon of Alexandria, Va., who conducted the special ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery.

Looking on were members of Kennedy’s family, including his wife, Ethel, and his 10 surviving children, as well as his brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), and other family members. All of the children and Sen. Kennedy participated in the service, reading quotations from Robert Kennedy’s political career.

Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) delivered a vivid remembrance of his father, who was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after he had claimed victory in the 1968 California primary. Robert Kennedy’s oldest child recalled a childhood in which he and his siblings were taught to feel compassion for the poor of the world and to challenge themselves to reach higher levels of achievement.

“On behalf of my family, I want to thank all of you for still caring,” Kennedy said to members of the crowd, some of whom wept as he spoke. “Twenty years after his death, all of us in our family share with countless others those precious moments of his public life . . . and those moments seem especially clear as we stand here at his grave tonight.”

‘A Restless Spirit’

Kennedy spoke of his father’s concern for blacks, Indians, Latinos and other groups that “have been dealt a bad hand” by American society. And he said that, if Robert Kennedy were alive, “he would not be satisfied with what he saw today . . . . His was a restless, morally awakened spirit, and it is something we have missed these past 20 years.”

That message struck a responsive chord with many in the crowd. For some, the pain and trauma of Kennedy’s death were still an open wound. For others, the promise held out by his last political campaign was an ideal they have never forgotten.

Excitement Remembered

As they waited for the service to begin, for example, Bill and Lee Lovett, a married couple in their 60s, remembered the frenetic excitement of Kennedy’s California primary race. At the time, they were living in the San Francisco Bay Area and supported his presidential bid.

“It will be many, many years before I forget Bobby Kennedy,” Bill Lovett said. “All of this makes me think back to that time, 20 years ago. His death was such a traumatic thing for our family, especially our children, because he had such a sense of humanity.”

Looking across the Potomac River to the Capitol beyond, Lovett added that “there’s just no comparison between Bobby and the (Democratic) candidates we have now. What a terrible loss.”

Sitting nearby, Maureen Ross, 55, remembered working for Kennedy in Sacramento during the 1968 campaign. She had been asked to be a member of his national campaign staff and was planning to move to Washington when news came that Kennedy had been assassinated.

“As a black woman, I always felt that he reflected my hopes and dreams for my country and for my children,” she said. “We will never know what kind of difference he might have made, if he had been allowed to live. All we have left is: What if?”

20 Years of Trauma

For some, the hillside ceremony held out the hope that they might finally lay Kennedy’s memory to rest. Susan Wynne, who worked as a youth coordinator in the New York senator’s 1968 campaign, said she has been unable to look at photographs of Kennedy for the last 20 years.

“I’m hoping that, after tonight, I can let him lie in peace,” she said. “It’s hard.”

When the service ended, hundreds of people swarmed toward Kennedy’s grave, which is marked by a simple white cross and a stone bearing the words: “Make gentle the life of the world.”

As people had when Kennedy was alive, members of the crowd surged forward to try to touch a part of him, in this case the gravestone. A few stood holding candles, and others whispered prayers.

Looking down on the scene, Lee Lovett shook her head sadly.

“This is a grief that a lot of people carry around with them, and it doesn’t go away,” she said. “It’s 20 years later, and I’m still crying.”