Personal Footnote to the Assassination of John F Kennedy

 

The afternoon just seemed to be endless. I was in a study hall and a senior in high school.  It was the fall of 1963 and my family had just moved in June from Florida to Tennessee. I had transferred from Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida to Jefferson High School in Jefferson City, Tennessee. So, it was a year of transitions and unbeknownst to me the changes would continue to come - in part because of the move, in part because of my age and stage of life and in part because of national political changes that were unfolding on this November day.

On a personal level I had met many new people in my life, school, community, and church. One, who was becoming a close friend, was John Toomey. He had given me a book of political fiction, which I had begun a month or so earlier. The book was ‘Advise and Consent’ by Alan Drury. John was a neighbor and was a couple of years older than I. It had been made into a movie but had never seen it. I read several chapters of the book daily in Mrs. Shipley’s study hall. The book was about the practice of the Senate “advising” the President concerning presidential nominations and constitutional requirement that the Senate “consent” to those nominations.

 

 

It was about 2:30 pm (East Tennessee Time) on that Friday afternoon when my reading was interrupted by a school public address system announcement. The president was in Dallas and he had been shot. At that announcement I immediately went to prayer. It was not effective.

No more than 30 minutes later we were told to go to the school’s auditorium and were informed of Kennedy’s death. It seems like there was a prayer, but I don’t remember any details beyond the fact that school was being dismissed immediately. We gathered our belongings and boarded buses that took us home. I did not own a car, so I had to ride the bus. Our bus driver’s name was “Lightening.” That’s what everyone called him. Yes, he was black and everyone liked him because a noisy, rowdy bus didn’t bother him. That afternoon it was eerily quite.  

 

 

On reaching home we immediately turned on the television. News was dominated by the events of the afternoon. The president’s visit to Dallas, the motorcade, the Dallas Book Depository building where the shots were fired, the rush of the President’s limousine to the hospital, the President’s death, and the swearing-in of Lyndon B. Johnson (referred to as LBJ) shortly before leaving Dallas on Air Force One.

 

The next several days were consumed with ever-growing details of Kennedy’s death, his war service, his presidency, his family and simply speculation. I don’t recall whether it was news coverage that brought things back to my mind or my memory of the events of the three previous years, but I thought back on the controversy that as “candidate” he was Catholic and that many thought he would implement Vatican policies, but since he had been sworn in on January 20, 1961 I had not seen any evidence of that suspicion.

 

 

I also recall that President Kennedy had established the Peace Corps shortly after taking office. I wondered about the volunteers who were serving in Africa, Asia and South America. I wondered because when I was a sophomore in high school we had been assigned by my teacher, Paul Susce to read ‘The Ugly American’ by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick (my copy was printed in Dec 1961). Susie was the grandson of an immigrant who had told him that even during World War II his grandfather warned him that the Soviets, one of our allies in the war, were as big threat to the world as were the Germans. The book was about Americans working in developing countries and how we are sometimes perceived and why.

 

My thoughts also went to the Bay of Pigs (April 17-20, 1961) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 14-24, 1962). The Cuban Missile Crisis involved U2 Spy planes documenting the construction of missile silos in Cuba, a pretty intense time if you lived in Florida.

At the time of the Bay of Pigs Invasion I was a paperboy in Florida and I recalled seeing the headline on the papers I delivered and how disappointed I was of its failure. Castro had lead a guerrilla war in Cuba against a dictator and in January 1960 became the country’s leader. Unfortunately, he became a Communist and allied with the Soviets. The Cuban Missile Crisis, which followed was notable because of Florida’s proximity to Cuba and the interest by many in Florida in building bomb shelters. The immediate nuclear war crisis ended when the US informed the world it would stop and inspect all Soviet ships off the coast of Cuba and Khrushchev agreeing to dismantle the missile sites.

Then there was the erection of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin. At least one TV documentary and a movie followed the construction of the wall in August of 1961 depicting East Berliners escaping by climbing the wall and digging tunnels from the East to West Berlin. And then who can forget the words of Kennedy, “I am a Berliner” in German when he visited West Berlin on June 26, 1963. Our hearts went out to the Berliners who were trapped in East Berlin.

So, during this period of political tension Kennedy had captured the hearts and attention of many of my peers. I suppose it was because he appeared to be a vigorous leader, who, as presidents go, was young. He was also following President Eisenhower, a retired general. Though Kennedy was older than my father and fought in World War II, he was so often pictured doing things that seemed youthful. He could be seen on yachts, playing football with family members and swimming. He also had young children. It was referred to as “Camelot.”

So on Saturday, November 23 the media focused on Kennedy’s body lying in the East Room of the White House, the Mass that was given that morning, movements of family members, and the friends and government officials that came and went. I recall too that enormous crowds were gathering outside the White House and other Washington sites as everyone prepared to observe his funeral. It was a gloomy, foggy drizzly day in East Tennessee.

Unfortunately, November 23 was also my mother’s 37^th birthday. There was no celebration. She didn’t even have a cake, but I guess she didn’t feel in the mood for one either.  I suppose no one was ‘up’ for any kind of party. I am not even sure it was mentioned by anyone, least of all her. It was unfortunate because we didn’t give her the attention she really deserved. Her day was lost in the tragedy that overwhelmed us all.

 

On Sunday morning, November 24, 1963 I went to church.  I don’t recall anything about the service. I suppose it too focused on the tragedy but nothing seems special about it now. I only recall that by the time I had returned home, Lee Harvey Oswald had already been killed by Jack Ruby. I had missed the live coverage of that event at 11:30 am CST in Dallas, but saw one of many re-runs of that event later that afternoon.

Later that day, John F. Kennedy’s body was taken by horse-drawn caisson from the White House to the US Capitol Rotunda, and throughout the remainder of the day and night hundreds of thousands of people lined up to view the closed casket. It seemed TV coverage covered the over 250,000 people that filed by Kennedy’s casket. The line of people continued to file by the bier until mid-morning on Monday.

At mid-morning on Monday, November 25 another caisson carried Kennedy’s body from the Capitol to St Matthew’s Cathedral.  The procession behind it was led by Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert and Edward Kennedy, Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson. It seemed to take forever. As I recall it was a cold day in Washington. At the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle, Cardinal Cushing held a Requiem Mass. The most memorable event afterward was when John-John saluted his father coffin upon its leaving the church. Everyone was moved.

Again the casket was carried by caisson to Arlington National Cemetery for burial and at the end of burial services, Jacqueline lit an eternal flame.

The events from Friday through Monday seemed endless and exhausting. I suppose too much of us were in shock. How could it be possible for anyone to murder a president in the 20^th Century? We had Secret Service Agents. We were a civilized county. This wasn’t the 1860’s. Our hearts had been ripped out and yet there was so much yet to be done. Parallels to Lincoln were made and speculations as to who else might be involved were being asked. Conspiracy theories were already being formed. It seemed to many that no one man could do this. It was obvious Investigations into Kennedy’s death would consume the news for months to come.

Indeed, in the months and years to follow, Kennedy’s assassination was tied to the Cuban and Soviet Union connections of Lee Harvey Oswald and to organized crime and mafia connections attributed to Jack Ruby. Because of the events leading up Friday, November 22, it seemed to all, any one of these factors may have been the agent to his death. Months and years were devoted to uncovering the truth. I’m not sure there is total agreement by expects to this day.

During the events of that tragedy, one thing never crossed my mind and that was the issue of Vietnam. Southeast Asia was really not on my radar. It may have been an emerging issue in Kennedy’s last days, and it may have been in the news, but it wasn’t the national preoccupation that it would become under President Lyndon B. Johnson months later.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy was (to that point in my life) the first of six gripping national tragedies I have experienced. For my mother is was her second or maybe third tragedy. What was her first? It was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She was a teenager at an afternoon Church Christmas Performance Rehearsal. On hearing of it their hearts were no longer in it and the rehearsal ended. I understand her heart. I understand it fully.

Do you know someone who filed by Kennedy’s casket or was alive then? What were their memories of those days? Maybe you were alive; what do you recall from that time? How old was your mother or grandmother on Friday, November 22, 1963? If she was alive, she would be 87 on November 23. I wish I could tell her, “Happy Birthday Mom.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Scripture

There is a time to live and a time to die. Ecclesiastes 3.1-8
We were created from dust and to dust we will return. Genesis 3.19
Everyone is appointed to die once and face judgment. Hebrews 9.27
Moses on Mt. Nebo saw the ‘promised land’ but was prohibited from entering it and then dies. Deuteronomy 34.1-7
King David dies. 1 Kings 2.1-4 and 10
Elijah taken up into heaven on a chariot. 2 Kings 2.9-12
Stephen being stoned to death. Acts 7.59-60
Sarah (Abraham’s wife) dies in the land of Canaan. Genesis 23.1
Jesus said to the Apostle John, “Behold your mother.” John 19.26-27
Jacob was gathered to his people. Genesis 49.33
John proclaimed that Jesus was the ‘Lamb of God.’ John 1.29
Jesus’ saying, “It is finished” on his death. John 19.30
Because Jesus rose from the dead, Paul wrote, “O’ death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15.55