Under gloomy skies and pouring rain that matched the mood of the nation, a stream of dignitaries came to the White House on Saturdayto file pastthe closed mahogany coffin.
Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in Dallas, Texas, a young ex-marine denied he fired the bullets that assassinated the President.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in a Dallas cinema an hour or so after the President's death.
During 10 hours of interrogation on Friday night he denied both charges.
Oswald was arrested in the cinema by police who were checking an usher's report that a man there was acting strangely.
Police had been searching the neighbourhood for a man who killed Patrolman J. D. Tippitt about 45 minutes after the President was assassinated.
THE SHOTS
It was 12.25p.m. (6.25 a.m.
Saturday, New Zealand time) when rifle shots rang out from a window on the fifth floor of a book warehouse as President Kennedy rode in bright sunshine through cheering crowds in the main business section of Dallas.
The President collapsed face down in the car. Pandemonium followed.
Governor John Connally, of Texas, was also hit and gravely wounded, but late reports said his condition was "good".
Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy, riding in the car with the President and Governor Connally, threw herself over her stricken husband, crying, "Oh, no."
She cradled his head in her arms as the driver sped to Parkland Hospital.
Oxygen and blood transfusions were used in a desperate bid to save the President. But at 1 p.m. he died without regaining consciousness. Priests administered the last rites.
The President, concerned about his unpopularity in the South over his Civil Rights Bill, arrived in Texas on Thursday with Mrs Kennedy to win support and close the divided ranks of the Texas Democrats.
The assassination attempt took place near the three-highway intersection of Elm and Houston streets near the main business area of the city.
The President was riding in an open car when he was shot.
Half an hour after the death, Vice-president Lyndon Johnson was flying back to Washington with the body and was sworn in as President before a sobbing woman judge in the plane.
"I will do my best - that is all I can do. I ask for your help, and God's," he told the nation on television as he returned to Washington.
Republican and Democratic leaders have already promised him bi-partisan support.