The Craftsman Who Carved JFK's Gravestone

Meet John “Fud” Benson, the designer of Kennedy's grave site

The gravestone of President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

When living on Block Island, Rhode Island, 12 miles out in the Atlantic, I’d always known John “Fud” Benson to be a reprobate. In fact he was one-quarter of a musical band called The Reprobates who invaded our shores to play sea chanteys and traditional Irish music. “Sea music,” they called it. Fud played fiddle and sang in the quartet, along with Jim Bennet, Jim McGrath, and island-based Irish troubadour Walter McDonough.