1863-large-300x30Pitcairn Kenedy 2013

The 50th Anniversary of JFK’s death is commemorated by Pitcairn Post with a four stamp issue and First Day Cover. The date stamp represents the Seal of the President of the United States of America.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), was the 35TH President of the United States. Commonly known as “Jack” or by his initials JFK, he served from 1961 until 1963.

After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy representedMassachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. In the 1960 U.S. presidential election, Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon. At 43 years of age, he was the youngest president to have been elected to the office and the second-youngest president after Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. As a catholic, JFK was the only non-protestant president to have been elected, and was the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

JFK despite serving for a short term, handled major “events” during his presidency which included the Bay of Pigs Invasion; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the building of the Berlin Wall; the Space Race; the African-American Civil Rights Movement and early stages of the Vietnam War where he increased the number of military advisers; special operation forces and helicopters in an effort to curb the spread of communism in South East Asia. His handling of these key situations helped make him one of the great Presidents and were characterized by influential and powerful speeches on which this stamp issue is based.

JFK also led a controversial and sometimes public private life. Married to Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” Bouvier, he was also one of the famous Kennedy brothers and a friend of Marilyn Munroe.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and accused of the crime but was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later, before a trial could take place. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. However, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that those investigations were flawed and that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy.