59 years ago today, JFK was killed

I really debated that comma in the title with myself and I decided that, yes, it needed a comma.

I'm ready for the Oh, Dears! Hit me with your worst.

My cousin was born 11/22/63. Can you imagine?

R2 Any bad luck? Seems a little omen-esque.

It’s an elegant comma. Such a rare treat, these days.

I was absolutely alive, I was 40 years old when this happened.

R5 I find that a little difficult to believe, because that would make you 99 years old. I don't to be rude to you, though, on the off chance that you actually are 99...

Thank you, R4.

I was in second grade at Catholic school. The Mother Superior announced it over the intercom, and told us to pray for the Kennedy family. And that the school buses were outside ready to take us home early.

I was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. Everything was very hushed after lunch with our teachers telling us to read and going in and out of the room.

My English teacher in the next to last period of the day was late coming into the room....and she was crying.

During the last period, a girl raised her hand and said to the teacher: "Somebody said the president was shot, is that true?" The science teacher just said: "There's going to be an announcement."

The principal came on the public address system and told us that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas. School was dismissed for the day......and the basketball game that night was cancelled.

R9 That is remarkably similar to what happened at my school on September 11th. Things really don't change, do they?

My mother cried hysterically. The neighborhood all got together to grieve. It was as if the goodness of people died that day too.

I just wanted them to get back to my story to find out what that Lisa was up to.

yep. i was eleven. the whole country was glued to the TV through the whole Thanksgiving weekend. And up thru Jack Ruby shooting Oswald.

I didn't even think of Thanksgiving.

What was Thanksgiving like that year?

I was 10 years old in 1963. The Principal came to our classroom door and motioned for the teacher to come into the hallway. We could see her start crying and she went off with a few other teachers. The Principal came into the classroom to tell us school was closing early and all our parents had been called. It was a small private school in those days and there were no busses so we all had to go outside and wait for someone to come pick us up. That was where I found out Kennedy had been assassinated. When I got home my older sister was in hysterics. There was no entertainment TV for the next 4 days. Every channel just showed the news about Kennedy.

We were watching TV the night they were transferring Lee Harvey Oswald and saw his execution by Jack Ruby live. I remember looking back at my mother and asking "what just happened?". She was stunned and couldn't answer.

So who actually did it?

I was in Junior High and it was a Friday afternoon. We were dismissed after being told the president had been shot. I got on the school bus and my friend had a transistor radio and told me that President Kennedy was dead. It was a terrible time.

On my 8th birthday, I watched on television Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald.

Who did it? Lately the info is getting stronger and stronger that JBJ was in on it.

The beginning of conservatives killing us… now it’s a free-for-all.

I was only 3 months old but my sister was 7. I'm Canadian and we were living in a Toronto suburb. After school my sister spent the afternoon with two other little girls who had just moved in before Labour Day. They were from South Carolina. That night at dinner my sweet, innocent sister asked, "Mommy, what's a Nigger lover"? Knowing she'd just spent the last few hours in the house of those Americans, my furious parents forbade her to ever go near them again.

I was 16. My first concern was my cousin, who was in the Secret Service then. He was there, but protecting LBJ and Lady Bird. At the time, we had no idea what the casualties might be, and it was only later that day we knew he was safe. He was a few cars back with the Veep. He rarely talked about his job, and this day was no exception, but he guarded Lady Bird and her daughters for years afterward.

As for the day itself, it was shattering for our family. No family death had the impact that JFK's did.

And the full story has not been told. Bastards.

A few years ago I was watching the 1960s documentary series that Tom Hanks produced and they did a whole segment on JFK and why it was definitely,100% for sure that LHO was the lone gunman. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just crazy.

I've assumed Hanks is CIA ever since.

I was 4, and I have a little memory of it. His face being projected on the TV screen at a neighbor's house (I guess when his death was announced) and a little bit of the flag-covered casket.

Happy 67th birthday on Thursday, R18.

JFK blown away, what else do I have to say?

JFK was killed 59 years ago today

I was also four years old. Our TV was on for the rest of the day after the announcement of the shooting. I do remember Walter Cronkite on the screen.

My mother sobbed during the televised funeral. She didn't even like Kennedy.

I was -19 years old.

I was almost 2. I sat transfixed and clapped awkwardly when Jackie got off the plane, then wailed and threw my pacifier when my dad said it was time for bed. Probably.

I was 5 and 3/4 years old, I was not in school yet, I didn't start school (1st grade) until the following September. I don't remember it. I do remember watching a press conference or speech JFK made about selling wheat to Russia. I also remember decorating the Christmas tree with my mom and her saying it wasn't going to be a happy Christmas that year.

* I do remember watching the funeral on TV.

I remember they sent us home from school.

Where are these schools that sent everyone home? Public school in California didn't send us home. Our teacher cried a little but that was it. Don't remember much talk about it, maybe because my parents were Republicans. My mom did wake us up to watch the funeral. I felt sorry for the kids, I was 11.

I remember the Cuban missile crisis much more vividly since dear old ma called us to the radio and said we might all be blown up in a few seconds.

[quote]Where are these schools that sent everyone home?

Aurora CO

We were all sent home,but in Michigan, that was only a few hours early.

Jackie Kennedy privately stated afterward that she believed that Lyndon Johnson had something to do with the death of her husband.

R38 And she made you promise not to tell until now.

Entre nous, Lyndon told me that Jackie was behind it. The Marilyn/Happy Birthday just pushed her over the edge.

I wasn't alive then, but whoever owned the house I bought left a box full of Dallas Morning News papers, and LIFE magazines from that day, and time period afterwards in the attic. The spot where he was killed is a big tourist draw here in Dallas. I'm surprised no one has been hit by a car yet from trying to take a picture on the X in the road where it happened

R35 interesting because the announcement was made at 1pm cst. So your school found out at maybe 11:15. And you weren't sent home. Whereas it seems people on the east coast were all sent home maybe 45 mins early.

My dad died 29 years ago today and he was twice the man JFK was. No philandering, no funny business, no mob ties.

Goodness, r41, I just realized that in the nine months I lived in Dallas, I never thought to check that out.

I was CONVINCED for YEARS that Oswald acted alone, and on behalf of no one. I still think he acted alone, but hearing E. Howard Hunt's confessions have given me pause on the "on behalf of no one" part.

JFK liked to grab 'em by the pussy, that's for sure.

R43 you are lucky to have had such a dad.

I'll post again as the impact of hearing the news being announced before a live, large audience is interesting to hear. Just listen.

Judy

R38 It did happen in Texas. What were George Bush's whereabouts now that you mention it? He wasn't in the motorcade?

I don't remember if school was cancelled for the following Monday, the day of the funeral. I know I was allowed to stay home because my parents were total Kennedyphiles.

I too was in a catholic grammar school and heard the principal come over the pa system and say that he had been shot and later killed. It's funny on that Sunday just when Ruby shot Oswald my mom had me adjusting the tv. We had to watch it on a videotape reply.

I was a decade from being born. I always wondered what the day must have been like until living through Sept. 11--it floors me that there are full-fledged adults walking around with no memory of the planes hitting the towers.

[quote] Where are these schools that sent everyone home?

Atlanta

R51 President Johnson proclaimed the day of the funeral, November 25, a day of national mourning, so my guess is that schools were closed.

r55 this isn't England when the President's proclamations carry weight for schools and banks for random holidays. Some schools may have closed but a governor has more power to close schools than a president.

I wasn’t even alive yet either, OP. It’s too bad that JFK was corrupt.

[quote] It’s too bad that JFK was corrupt.

Why?

He might not have been killed.

So, your theory is he was killed because he was corrupt. And your evidence of that?

That’s not what I said. At all.

What are you saying? Why do you think he was corrupt and what that has to do with his murder?

I’m saying that he was no victim of circumstance. He was no innocent bystander regarding how he came to be elected.

OK. Any time you want to bring up anything of substance, we can talk about it.

I go along with the idea that it was the mafia that fed the Kennedys. Joseph Kennedy was involved with booklegging which was where they got their money. Move ahead to the 60s John is in The White House and his brother Robert is attorney general going after the mob. By knocking off John Kennedy they also get rid of Robert. Two birds with one shot.

[quote]and LIFE magazines from that day,

DL fave Elizabeth Ashley was on the cover of the LIFE magazine that was released the day of the assasination.

Phil Spector's holiday album was also released that day.

The reality is that there were numerous individuals, groups of people, organizations, etc who were directly impacted by the Kennedy presidency in a very negative way. There were many with axes to grind. Some of them participated in the plot together, including the government. My opinion, anyway. Who was the mob boss that JFK and Bobby had deported to the middle of a jungle in S America? Left there in the jungle to die. Rosselli? Marcello? Miraculously, he made it out alive. This is just one example.

R65, you have a point there.

[quote]DL fave Elizabeth Ashley was on the cover of the LIFE magazine that was released the day of the assasination.

If the date of the magazine is Nov 22, 1963, it probably was not. Weekly magazines like Life always dated them a week ahead i.e. Nov 22 would be on the stands Nov 15.

Yes we were on EST so it would have been after 1 p.m. when the whole thing started. We were dismissed only about an hour early at 2:30 p.m. or 3 p.m.

Texas was an hour behind us......

R69 The November 29th issue was a JFK memoriam issue, so it can't have been exactly a week. If I recall, when I still subscribed to magazines, it was more like 5 days.

Im the poster with box of JFK papers, and LIFE magazines. I'll go pull it out of the attic and setting this date debate.

R72 Damn, DL is a resource. Thanks.

Nov 29th is correct!

Dec 6th

Dec 13th

Here is a random one from Aug 16th!

I apologize for not remembering the correct dates.

They'd had a baby die in August? I never knew that.

What a shitty couple of months Jackie had. No wonder she needed assistance.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused the CIA of murdering his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, in a tweet on December 16, 2022. He called the JFK assassination a “successful coup d’etat.”

“The most courageous newscast in 60 years. The CIA’s murder of my uncle was a successful coup d’état from which are democracy has never recovered,” RFK Jr. wrote, sharing a broadcast by Fox News’ host Tucker Carlson.

RFK Jr is also an anti vax lunatic, so...

I always found it darkly funny they claimed Jackie was trying to catch a piece of JFK's skull when she immediately jumped out of the car. It's pretty clear she was trying to get out of the firing line! And who could blame her?

I guess we'll be coming up on the 60th anniversary next month. Makes me feel old.

[quote] Where are these schools that sent everyone home?

Amongst others was Dallas's University Park Elementary School where the little kids cheered when told they could go home early that day. Dan Rather took that report and manufactured the myth anti Kennedy children cheered the assassination.

Eddie Barker was the CBS affiliate news director who was the first to report the death. Barker ran Rather's story by the school principal who replied run the story by the school's principal and some teachers, all of whom denied it outright. Because of the shooting, which took place at 12:30 p.m., the principal had decided to close the school early, though without telling the students why. The children at the school--including three of Barker's own--were merely happy to be going home early, he was told. There couldn't have been any spontaneous cheering at the news of Kennedy's murder.

And thus are network news anchors created.