By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
It was 50 years ago today that three horrifying shots rang out in Dallas that killed a sitting U.S. president and left an indelible scar on the country. The 50th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas stirs memories of a Secret Service agent climbing into a speeding convertible, Jackie Kennedy’s blood-stained pink suit, John John saluting and where we were when we heard the news.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. Though five decades have passed since the traumatic event, the memories remain fresh for some.
Connie Schifer was five years old when Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed Kennedy from a position in the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Her mother was ironing and watching as the president’s motorcade made its way down Main Street.
“I was sitting on the floor playing and remember watching the whole thing,” Schifer said in a post on Crawford County Now’s Facebook page. She remembered it being a very small screen, maybe a 10-inch screen, but it was a huge TV. “I remember mom sitting down on (the) couch and sobbing…and I walked over to her and she just held me tight and cried for (a) very long time…do not think I understood all that was happening but my mommy was crying so I cried too.”
Barbara Scott was in first or second grade at Parkview Elementary School in Jackson, Ohio, at the time. She said she remembered someone coming over the loudspeaker and announcing that Kennedy had been shot.
“I am not sure if we were dismissed immediately then or finished out the school day. I do remember that we did not have school at all for the next few days, as the nation was in a deep state of mourning,” Scott wrote.
It was the dawn of TV coverage and Scott remembered there being “dawn to dusk coverage of the aftermath and the state funeral.”
“I can distinctly remember watching the funeral procession taking JFK’s body to the Capitol building. Watching the horse-drawn hearse and the military men marching beside it and hearing that drumbeat as they did was something that is etched in my memory forever,” said Scott.
Deb Pinion had been a freshman at Wynford High School. She was sitting in Latin class when someone announced the news over the speaker. The students were taken to the gymnasium.
“No one knew what to do,” said Pinion.
She remembered seeing when, only a few days later, Jack Ruby shot Oswald on live TV.
“It was all surreal, nothing like that had ever happened, it was the end of a (sic) age of innocence,” Pinion thought.
Carolyn Helbert was only in sixth grade and had just come back from lunch and recess. The school announced the news over the loudspeaker.
“The thing that sticks in my mind more than anything, is the teachers crying,” Helbert said.
There was non-stop coverage on the few channels available.
“Back then there was no cable and no choice to watch anything else,” said Helbert. “I also remember my mom yelling at the TV when she saw Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald.”
Nearly 50 years later, Helbert is still glued to her TV as various programs are aired over the Kennedy assassination.
“I watched the two-part show on PBS. I thought it was very good, but I stopped watching after they lost baby Patrick in 1963. I couldn’t stand seeing Caroline and John-John so young and innocent, knowing what was going to happen to them and their parents,” Helbert said. “I don’t know why I still get so emotional, maybe it’s hormones, or lack of, but I do know that it was a huge tragedy and changed America in so many ways! I think our innocence ended and a new era began with our involvement in Vietnam, escalated drug use and a defined generational gap.”