Stan Stearns, Photographer of JFK Jr.'s Salute to His Father, Has Died.

[joeybee12]

Stan Stearns, 76, who took the iconic photograph of John F. KennedyJr. saluting his father's coffin during the slain president's 1963 funeral, died Friday of cancer at a hospice in Harwood, Md., said his son Jay.

As a photographer for United Press International, Stearns was assigned to cover John F. Kennedy's funeral on Nov. 25, 1963. He was standing outside a Washington cathedral with about 70 photographers when he saw Jacqueline Kennedy lean down to whisper to her son, who turned 3 that day. The boy then stepped forward as the flag-draped coffin rolled by.

"His hand went up, it went down; one exposure, that's all I got," Stearns told the Baltimore Sun in 1999. "Seconds, that's all it was. And I knew I had the picture of the funeral."

Other still photographers missed the picture because they had focused on Jacqueline Kennedy or the president's coffin, Stearns later said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passing-20120304,0,5185400.story

[joeybee12]

1. vanity kick...this is a great photo