Trees planted in Israel for Kennedy and kin

By Associated Press, 08/03/99

JERUSALEM -- Deep in the Jerusalem hills, trees were planted Tuesday in memory of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and his sister-in-law in a forest named after his father.

In the Israeli tradition of honoring someone's memory by planting a tree, three oak saplings were placed in the rocky soil next to a milk-colored stone marker with the names of Kennedy, 38, his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and her 34-year-old sister, Lauren Bessette, who were killed in a plane crash July 17.

The trees were planted by visiting Americans and Jewish National Fund officials on a sloping hillside. Nearby is a memorial for Kennedy's father, the assassinated president, designed as a tree stump to symbolize a life cut down before its time.