Stan Stearns, the man best known for his iconic picture of John Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin in 1963, passed away from cancer at the age of 76.

Born in 1935, Stearns first began working as a photographer at the Capitol newspaper when he was 16.

He later worked as an Air Force photographer and for United Press International before setting up his own photography studio in Annapolis, taking wedding pictures, portraits and graduation pictures of students at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Throughout his career, he also covered the administrations of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon.