Obituary: Dan Farrell, photographer of Kennedy funeral salute, dies at 84

Navy personnel prepared to fold the flag before presenting it to Lynn Farrell, whose father, Dan, a photographer who captured an iconic image at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, died April 13 at age 84.

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Dan Farrell

Courtesy Farrell family

3-year-old Brayden Kudlek, Farrell’s great-grandson, struck a familiar pose.

Bill Kelly/Herald

Pallbearers Carried Dan Farrell while family and friends look on.

Bill Kelly/Herald

Dan’s son, Daniel and his wife, at the funeral.

Bill Kelly/Herald

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Dan Farrell, an Oceanside resident who shot the famous picture of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father’s coffin for the New York Daily News, died on April 13 at Mercy Medical Center. He was 84.

Farrell was born on Oct. 31, 1930 in Hazelton, Pa., and grew up in Brooklyn. He served in the Navy before joining the Daily News as a copy boy around 1950, eventually becoming a staff photographer. He moved to Long Island in 1961.

The day of the John F. Kennedy’s funeral, Farrell was on assignment in Washington D.C. He captured the iconic salute on a flatbed truck about 150 feet from the Kennedy family. “It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” Farrell told the New York Daily News in 2013.

The picture was sent out through the Associate Press wire service and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It lost to Bob Jackson’s photograph of the moment Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

Over his long career, Farrell also photographed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Bing Crosby taking a train to Aqueduct Racetrack and the 1971 heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. He retired in 1996.

Farrell is survived by his five children: Daniel Farrell Jr., Lynn Farrell, Kathy Natoli, Christine McCormick and Mary Ligarzewski, as well as 19 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. His wife, Mary Martin Farrell, died in 2012.

“He was the most wonderful dad ever,” said Natoli. “He taught us so much about life: to enjoy it, don’t stress over the small stuff… He had an amazing career but to us he was just our dad.”