What Ethel Kennedy Did at RFK’s Funeral That Shocked Everyone

On June 8, 1968, a 21-car funeral train carried Robert F. Kennedy's casket from New York to Washington. Between one and two million Americans stood beside the tracks. And somewhere along the route, his widow got up. Ethel Kennedy was 40 years old, a mother of ten, and three months pregnant with their eleventh child. What she did on that train is what the people aboard were still describing fifty years later. This is the record of the hours after: the night at the Good Samaritan Hospital, the closed mahogany casket on a presidential jet, the line twenty-five blocks long outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, Ted Kennedy's eulogy, the two people killed by a passing train in Elizabeth, New Jersey, fifteen hundred candles at Arlington, and a burial at 11:34 at night. Where were you when you heard that Robert Kennedy had been shot? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 The widow who stood up on the funeral train 1:25 June 6, 1968: Good Samaritan Hospital 2:33 Ethel Kennedy, pregnant with her eleventh child 3:29 The casket flies east 4:17 Why Arlington, and not Massachusetts 5:00 St. Patrick's Cathedral: the line 25 blocks long 7:12 The Requiem Mass: Bernstein and the Battle Hymn 8:11 Ted Kennedy's eulogy 9:11 The 21-car funeral train 11:10 Tragedy at Elizabeth, New Jersey 12:23 Aboard the train 13:00 What Ethel Kennedy did 14:54 Four hours late into Washington 15:47 Arlington by candlelight 17:11 The folded flag 18:09 The grave after the funeral 20:23 Rory Kennedy, and Ethel's last years 21:04 The hours after, in pieces 22:03 Where were you when you heard? The Last Viewing tells the stories of the last farewells of famous Americans, using real archive footage and photographs. Archive footage and photographs are used for documentary and educational purposes. #RobertKennedy #EthelKennedy #TheLastViewing