Nevada Appeal at 150: Aug. 9, 1963: Kennedy infant dies from lung disease

The baby son of President and Mrs. Kennedy died early today from a dreaded lung disease which overpowered his heart. The president stood just steps away when his son’s 39-hour fight for life came to an end.

Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died at the Boston Children’s Hospital Medical Center at 4:04 a.m. EDT.

The president spent two hours and 10 minutes with his wife in her suite at the big Air Force base and planned another visit to her later today.

Private funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday with Richard Cardinal Cushing, Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, celebrating the Mass of the Angles in his private chapel. The Mass is a special ceremony for baptized babies.

Death came to the third child of the president less than 40 hours after his birth in the Otis Air Force Base Hospital on Cape Cod, about 65 miles south of Boston.

Mrs. Kennedy, still recuperating from the Caesarean delivery in a special wing of the Otis hospital, had not been told her baby had died, Salinger told newsmen when he announced the baby’s death.

This continues the Appeal’s review of news stories and headlines during its Sesquicentennial year.