Church That Hosted Memorial Service for JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette and Sister Lauren Shares Photos of 1999 Event Program

The service took place in Greenwich, Conn., on July 24, 1999, and featured speakers including RFK Jr. and Bobby Shriver

NEED TO KNOW

• Christ Church Greenwich shared photos of the 1999 memorial service program for John F. Kennedy Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette
• The program revealed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Bobby Shriver participated in the service with readings and prayers
• The three died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999

The program from the memorial service for John F. Kennedy Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette was shared by the family’s church.

On March, 13, Christ Church Greenwich, the Connecticut parish that Carolyn and JFK Jr. attended when they were in the area, shared photos of the program from the July 24, 1999, service on social media.

“In 1999, Christ Church Greenwich had the profound honor of hosting a memorial service for Lauren Bessette, her sister, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy Jr. 🙏 We held them in prayer then, and we hold them in our prayers still,” the church wrote in the caption.

Photos of the inside of the program reveal that, in addition to an opening prayer, a hymn, and an ode to the departed, there were three separate readings for Lauren, Carolyn and JFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current secretary of health and human services, did the reading for his cousin, JFK Jr.

JFK Jr.’s cousin Bobby Shriver, the older brother of Maria Shriver, also spoke at the service.

Christ Church Greenwich did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

JFK Jr., 38, Carolyn, 33, and Lauren, 34, were in a small plane piloted by JFK Jr. when the aircraft plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999.

The plan was for JFK Jr. to fly his Piper Saratoga plane, which he had purchased that spring, to Martha’s Vineyard to drop off Lauren, and then continue on to Hyannis Port, Mass., where he and Carolyn planned to attend his cousin Rory Kennedy's wedding the next day. 

Navy divers recovered the bodies from the ocean floor on July 21, 1999.  Autopsies concluded that all three died upon impact.

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In July 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board declared in a report that pilot error was the most likely cause of the plane crash.

The New York Times reported that one of Kennedy's instructors told the board he offered to fly with Kennedy the night of the crash but that Kennedy refused. The report says that haze likely obscured the horizon the evening of the fateful flight, causing Kennedy to become disoriented.

"We are filled with unspeakable grief and sadness by the loss of John and Carolyn and Lauren Bessette,” Sen. Ted Kennedy said at the time in a statement on behalf of the Kennedy family.

He continued, “John was a shining light in all our lives and in the lives of the nation and the world that first came to know him as a little boy.”

Carolyn and Lauren's surviving family said in a statement at the time: “Each of these three young people — Lauren Bessette, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. — was the embodiment of love, accomplishment and passion for life. John and Carolyn were true soul mates [and took] solace in the thought that together they will comfort Lauren for eternity.”

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