ONE of the last messages of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to his fellow countrymen was the Thanksgiving Day Proclamation which he issued on November 4, 1963. I urge that his proclamation be read in the churches of the United States in their services on November 28 as a memorial to him. I also ask that the newspapers and the television and radio stations make it available to all of the American people by including it in their recognition of this first and most solemn of our holidays.
We dedicate Thanksgiving Day, as we have for over 300 years, as a day to give thanks to God for His gifts and the sustenance which He has provided in undertaking the tasks of our Nation.
Note: For President Kennedy's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation see 1963 volume, this series, Item 451.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President: Thanksgiving Day. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238793