ARLINGTON, Va. -- They came to the gates of Arlington National Cemetery from everywhere - a mix of generations, a mix of races, drawn by a woman and a memory.
They came to say goodbye to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, each using this last moment on a sunny Monday afternoon to somehow recapture the legacy of her era.
Howard Riddick made the sad journey, much as he had in 1963, when he waited and wept with thousands of others for more then 11 hours to pay his last respects to John F. Kennedy at the Capitol.
He had been to slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers' funeral just months earlier. He would later attend the funerals of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
"I came for what they stood for and what they were trying to do and how they disappeared," Riddick said as he waited. "I sort of felt I should be here, too."
Jim Goudie, a retired Air Force sergeant who was at Andrews Air Force Base when JFK's casket arrived from Dallas, came to honor the legacy of the civil rights movement.
"She was always the first lady to me, and to black people in general," said Goudie. The Kennedys "really set the trend for us, and they passed that to LBJ, who carried on what I'm sure President Kennedy would have done (in civil rights) if he were alive."
Norman and Florence Reno of Oak Lawn, Ill., came, remembering the election that put the first Catholic couple in the White House.
"My wife and I are Catholics, . . . so there's a real connection there," said Reno, 64. "It feels like a family member lost."
Shelley Walker came to honor a role model, a woman she watched and admired as girl.
"I was 13 years old when the president died and watching her made me grow up," said Walker, 44, a staffer at the Clinton White House. "I really admired her, all the things everybody says, the strength, the grace, the mystery."
John Clizbe, 32, an unemployed engineer from Burke, Va., is too young to remember the turbulent 1960s.
But "I was named after Kennedy," he said. "And I came to get a feeling of being a part of history."
Nearly everyone standing quietly to watch the hearse pass spoke about their memories of a time gone by.
Kristin Cabral, 28, wasn't born when JFK was assassinated. But he "left a legacy, most primarily, of service. That was very vital to me growing up - that it's important to do service for others," she said.
As the curbside, mourners tried to shield themselves from the heat of the bright spring day, many stared out across the Potomac River, wondering what had been lost.
"She kept the people's respect and that's hard to do today," said Carolyn Edwards, 56, who came from Masontown, Va. "It sounds like a cliche, but she's the closest thing to royalty that we as Americans have."
Could any one else have brought Riddick from his Portsmouth, Va., home for this roadside vigil?
"In politics? No, not right now. Nobody's worthy."
Said Theresa Gogat, 58, of Springfield, Va.: "I don't think there'll ever be anyone like those two. It's just the end of an era."
EXCERPTS FROM SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY'S MASS EULOGY:
'No one else looked like her, spoke like her, wrote like her, or was so original in the way she did things. No one we knew ever had a better sense of self.
And then, during those four endless days in 1963, she held us together as a family and a country. In large part because of her, we could grieve and then go on. She lifted us up, and in the doubt and darkness, she gave her fellow citizens back their pride as Americans. She was then 34 years old.
Afterward, as the eternal flame she lit flickered in the autumn of Arlington Cemetery, Jackie went on to do what she most wanted - to raise Caroline and John, and warm her family's life and that of all the Kennedys.
Her two children turned out to be extraordinary, honest, unspoiled and with a character equal to hers. And she did it in the most trying of circumstances. They are her two miracles. Her love for Caroline and John was deep and unqualified. She reveled in their accomplishments, she hurt with their sorrows, and she felt sheer joy and delight in spending time with them. At the mere mention of one of their names, Jackie's eyes would shine brighter and her smile would grow bigger.
She never wanted public notice - in part, I think, because it brought back painful memories of an unbearable sorrow, endured in the glare of a million lights.
In all the years since then, her genuineness and depth of character continued to shine through the privacy, and reach people everywhere. Jackie was too young to be a widow in 1963, and too young to die now.'
EXCERPTS FROM 'MEMORY OF CAPE COD' BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY:
'The wind in the ash tree sounds like surf on the shore at Truro.
I will shut my eyes.
Hush. Be still with your silly pleading sheep on Shilling Stone Hill
They said, come along.
They said, leave your pebbles on the sand and come along.
It's long after sunset
The mosquitoes will be thick in the pine woods along by Long Neck.
The winds died down. They said, leave your pebbles on the sand and your shells too and come along
We'll find you another beach like the beach at Truro.
Let me listen to the wind in the ash
It sounds like surf on the shore.'
MAURICE TEMPLESMAN READ THE POEM 'ITHACA' BY CONSTANTINE PETER CAVAFY, DURING THE MASS -- Excerpts:
'Keep Ithaca always in your mind,
Arriving there is what you're destined for,
But don't hurry the journey at all,
Better if it lasts for years so you're old by the time you reach the islands,
Wealthy with all you've gained on the way, not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey,
Without her, you wouldn't have set out,
She has nothing left to give you now.
JOHN F. KENNEDY JR. READ FROM ISAIAH 25 AT THE BURIAL:
'The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces. The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth. For the Lord hath spoken. On that day it will be said: Behold our God to whom we look to save us. This is the Lord for whom we looked. Let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us.'
EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESIDENT'S GRAVESIDE EULOGY:
'We are joined here today at the site of the eternal flame, lit by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 31 years ago, to bid farewell to this remarkable woman whose life will forever glow in the lives of her fellow Americans.
Whether she was soothing a nation grieving for a former president, or raising the children with the care and the privacy they deserve, or simply being a good friend, she seemed always to do the right thing, in the right way.
She taught us by example about the beauty of art, the meaning of culture, the lessons of history, the power of personal courage, the nobility of public service, and most of all, the sanctity of family.
God gave her very great gifts and imposed upon her great burdens. She bore them all with dignity and grace and uncommon common sense. . . .
Hillary and I are especially grateful that she took so much time to talk about the importance of raising children away from the public eye, and we will always remember the wonderful, happy times we shared together last summer. With admiration, love and gratitude, for the inspirations and the dreams she gave to all of us, we say goodbye to Jackie today.
May the flame she lit, so long ago, burn ever brighter here and always brighter in our hearts. God bless you, friend, and farewell.'
