At the time President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, he and the First Lady were scheduled to host friends for a Sunday cruise aboard "Sequoia", two days later, on November 24, 1963. This cruise did not take place until April 1964 when the widowed Mrs. Kennedy spent an evening aboard "Sequoia" with a group of President Kennedy's closest friends. Frank Gannon, the piano player aboard that day, recounts a poignantly sad story of Mrs. Kennedy requesting him to play “Me and My Shadow” a song about being alone. On May 27, 1964, two days before what would have been President Kennedy's 47th birthday, his closest family and friends once again gathered aboard "Sequoia" for a dinner cruise documented by Kennedy speechwriter and presidential historian, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. In an interview after her husband had left office, former first Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, remembered the Johnson's “love affair with the "Sequoia" goes back indeed to 1949.”Having become friends with then Secretary of the Navy and soon to be Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, the future president and First Lady had been invited guests aboard the ship on numerous occasions during the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations. As Kennedy's vice president, Johnson made eight recorded trips aboard "Sequoia". As president, Johnson's use of "Sequoia" would increase, with more than 35 recorded trips during his 5 years in office. During 1964, President Johnson ordered FDR's elevator removed and a bar installed in its place. Johnson used "Sequoia" to lobby members of congress on critical legislative matters including civil rights and to strategize with his advisors regarding important decisions including escalation of the Vietnam war. "Sequoia" was used for hosting foreign ambassadors, as well as the leaders of Turkey and Greece who discussed the ongoing issue of Cyrpus. President Johnson frequently used "Sequoia" as a place to unwind and watch a film. "Sequoia"s most frequent presidential passenger was Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon. President Nixon recorded more than 80 trips aboard the yacht while in office. On June 19, 1973, when a party of U.S. and Soviet diplomats accompanied the President and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev on a working dinner aboard the yacht. Throughout their cruise, the leaders discussed an agreement between the U.S. and U.S.S.R regarding the prevention of nuclear war, which was signed by President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev two days later on June 22, 1973 during the Washington Summit.