Washington— On a chilly and overcast Friday afternoon in Washington, DC, appropriate for the mood surrounding the 50th anniversary of the death of the 35th president, a crowd filed into St. Matthews Cathedral for a Choral Mass of Remembrance for John F. Kennedy.

Fifty years ago on Monday, St. Matthews drew world attention on that day when a full state funeral for JFK was presided over by Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston and a Kennedy family friend. From the cathedral, the casket would proceed ceremoniously to Arlington National Cemetery where the remains of the president would be interred under an eternal flame.

BU Washington News Service correspondents asked passersby for to share their memories of five decades ago.

(Credit: Interviews by Brittnee Exum, Kelsey Hopper, Shelby Carignan, Sidney Leng, Joy Liu, and Taylor Hartz. Photo by Eliot Francis)