JFK Jr. Recalled, a Decade Later

John F. Kennedy Jr. “seemed to belong not only to our family, but to the American family,” his uncle Ted said in his eulogy. On the 10th anniversary of his death, the New York Daily News remembers the president’s son the public knew as as John-John—a nickname he hated—and the tragedy of a death caused by the thing that brought him the most peace: flying.

Kennedy was sometimes hemmed in by expectations—when he failed to pass the bar exam, one headline proclaimed, “The Hunk Flunks.” He finally went “outside the arena,” as he said when he created George magazine on his own terms. But it was in the air that he found serenity: “The sunset is so beautiful,” he said on his first solo flight. “Can I go around one more time?” (More John F. Kennedy Jr. stories.)