Nov 23, 2003 By Amanda Clegg 6 min read

A bouquet of asters and red roses lay on the back seat of the shimmering black Lincoln limousine. Moments earlier, Jackie Kennedy, the first lady of the United States, had cradled the bouquet, a gift from a welcoming party, as she and President John F. Kennedy waved to the people of Dallas, Texas, who had gathered at Love Field on Nov. 22, 1963, to meet the most famous couple in the world. Moments later, the bouquet speckled with blood, she cradled the lifeless body of her husband, the victim of a sniper’s bullet.

From the beginning, America embraced the presidential couple. Growing up, she rode horses and studied ballet. He played tennis, basketball, football and golf. In Newport, R.I., she was named Debutante of the Year in 1947. He was a hero in World War II and wrote a Pulitzer-prize-winning book.

Together they were America’s pick for prom king and queen.

Decades later, the glamour of John and Jackie still captivate. And the mystery of his death still haunts the American people.

“He was a celebrity president,” said James Wood, California University of Pennsylvania history and political science professor. “People are fascinated with them.”

Forty years after his assassination, that fascination is evident in everything from movies, books and rap lyrics – “JFK,” Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie; “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963,” Robert Dallek’s 2003 book; “Excuse Me Miss Again,” Jay-Z’s 2003 rap with a line referencing the late president and his wife.

In a 1994 article in the “Atlantic Monthly,” writer Steven Stark compared Kennedy to Elvis, James Dean and John Lennon: “Dying young freezes the stars at their peak: like the promise of Hollywood itself, they remain forever young and beautiful – the perfect icons for immortality that films and records purport to offer.”

But dying young is only part of what makes Kennedy an American icon. Tom Stone, a senior lecturer in English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, has taught the class “On the Trail of the Assassin(s)” for 10 years.

“It will always be an important event because there is no aspect of American culture that it does not provide some perspective on,” Stone said of the Kennedy era. “From foreign policy and spies to show business, it’s all right there. You can’t beat it: sex and violence and the crime of the century.”

Unfortunately, Kennedy’s status as legend in pop culture often leads to ignorance.

Stone said that subsequent generations are “unaware of what a figure of controversy Kennedy was in his day.

“They tend to think of him as purely the martyred, glamorous, young president, the historical personage, not a real human being and real politician who had to get himself elected and worry about getting re-elected,” he said. “They just don’t see him as a real political figure who was as much hated as loved in his lifetime.”

Dennis Simon, associate professor of political science at SMU, said the risks Kennedy took while in office led to the criticism of his presidency.

“His greatest legacies were more symbolic. The space program, the Peace Corps are still with us today. He was an eventual convert to civil rights,” he said. “He would be most criticized for the adventures of his administration: the Bay of Pigs, pushing us to the brink on the Cuban Missile Crisis and the legacy he left Johnson with Vietnam.”

Simon said that legacy was “a mess with no firm decision made by the administration.”

America tense at the possibility of nuclear war after the Bay of Pigs invasion failed in 1961, Wood said the missile crisis in October 1962 was the president’s crowning achievement.

The Russians, who had denied installing nuclear offensive missile sites in Cuba, lied, Wood explained.

“They outright lied to Kennedy,” he said. “He was in a touchy situation, in fact; nuclear war was a real possibility.”

Kennedy confronted the Russians and the United Nations publicly and made deals to arrange the withdrawal of the missiles, Wood said, adding that Kennedy averted “the possibility of a nuclear crisis.”

The youngest president to hold office appealed to a generation longing for change and his murder in his native land during a time of peace shook a nation falling in love with politics again.

“There’s no question that he had a dynamic effect on the American political process,” Wood said. “He provided a vision and an inspiration for a lot of us who were coming of a political age. He was my president. He was my first president, and when we lost him it was a kick in the teeth.”

Although later generations may not understand the loss of a dream anchored to a man regarded as a savior, those who speak of where they were, what they were doing and how they felt on Nov. 22, 1963, do.

A former union leader, Martin Griglak, who also worked on campaigns for JFK’s brothers Robert and Ted Kennedy, said the president’s death was as painful to him as the death of a father.

“We were shattered,” the 77-year-old Connellsville resident said.

The world shared Griglak’s sentiment.

The book “Four Days: The Historical Record of the Death of President Kennedy,” chronicled the deep impact of Kennedy’s death worldwide.

“I thought that he was a peace-loving, brave and kind man,” wrote Norman Shaw, 11, of England. “In fact, all that a man should be. One day I hope that I will follow his example.”

Nikita Khrushchev, then premier of the Soviet Union and Kennedy’s opposite during the Cuban Missile Crisis, wrote: “The death of J.F. Kennedy is a hard blow to all people who cherish the cause of peace and Soviet-American co-operation.”

And in Dallas on a card left in the grass along the road where Kennedy was assassinated, “We love you. Please forgive us,” signed the Ted Wilson family.

Like the Kennedys themselves, the flowers in that bouquet have become part of American lore. Roses, according to legend, blushed with shame when God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Mourners placed asters on the graves of French soldiers while wishing that things had turned out differently.

Within an hour of receiving the bouquet, the president’s blood had seeped into the fabric of Jackie Kennedy’s pink suit, his influence into the fabric of American culture. The beauty of Camelot was dead. But the roses and asters remain.