President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy’s fourth child dies at age 39 hours and 12 minutes 60 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Aug 9 1963)


Video: 'Aug. 9. 1963 - Pierre Salinger Announces Death of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy'

(Friday, August 9, 1963, 4:04 a.m. EDT)Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, fourth child and second son of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, died today from complications of hyaline membrane disease (HMD) at the Children’s Hospital Boston only 39 hours and 12 minutes after being delivered by emergency caesarean section, five and a half weeks early, at the Otis Air Force Base Hospital in Bourne, Massachusetts.

At the time of the infant’s death, the president was outside the room with the hyperbaric chamber with his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.


Video: 'Secret Service discuss the death of Patrick Kennedy'

The first lady, then 34, remained at Otis Air Force Base Hospital recovering from the caesarean section. She was told of her son’s death by her obstetrician, John W. Walsh. She was given a sedative and slept until the president flew from Boston.

The president, who had reportedly slept only four hours since the birth, was photographed arriving at Otis Air Force Base looking “grave and appearing tired.”


Video: 'August 10, 1963 - The Funeral of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy at Holyhood Cemetery, Brookline, Mass.'

A small funeral mass would be held the following day in the private chapel of Cardinal Richard Cushing in Boston. The child was initially buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, the president’s hometown.

His body and that of his stillborn sister Arabella were reinterred on December 5, 1963, alongside their father, who would be assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, at Arlington National Cemetery and later moved to their permanent graves in Section 45, Grid U-35.