The Kennedy Gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery

Among the thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery, the gravesite of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis has become one of the cemetery’s most visited places.

President Kennedy was buried at Arlington on November 25, 1963, just three days after his assassination in Dallas. Jacqueline Kennedy had chosen the location after walking the grounds with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. She wanted her husband buried where the public could visit him, and the hillside site offered a view across the Potomac toward Washington and the Lincoln Memorial.

The most recognizable feature is the Eternal Flame. Jacqueline Kennedy requested an eternal flame for the grave, inspired in part by memorials she had seen in Europe. During the burial ceremony, she lit the flame herself. The original temporary gravesite was later redesigned, and the permanent memorial was dedicated in 1967.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was buried beside him following her death in 1994. Their two infant children are also buried with them: their stillborn daughter, Arabella, and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, who was born prematurely in August 1963 and lived for only two days.

The simplicity of the graves is striking. There are no enormous monuments to identify a president and first lady, just these flat slate markers set into the stones, with the Eternal Flame burning nearby.