Friday, November 22, 2013

50th Anniversary of Kennedy Assassination

Like many of you, my parents saved the above copy of The Journal from Friday, November 22, 1963 with the tragic announcement of President John F. Kennedy's assassination – which occurred 50 years ago today.

I was too young back then (not quite five) to understand what was going on – so I can't say I remember much about the assassination and its aftermath. I only remember that my normal TV diet of cartoons simply wasn't available. (The three TV networks suspended all their normal programming to stick with the story until after Kennedy's funeral.)

While preparing for this post, I originally went to the trouble of getting the newspaper image from microfilm (below).

After it was all cleaned up, I realized – Mom and Dad have saved that paper!

They also saved the next day (below).
Sad, historic times.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My parents saved newspapers from that time too. I have the front of The Plain Dealer from the morning of the 23rd, also a Saturday. It shows a photo that is a little odd, a frontal view of the limo after JFK was shot. Although the top looks up, it is hard to tell because of the overhead bar that separated the front and the 2 back seats. Faces in the background in the crowds are smiling so they obviously had no idea what had happened. There is an arrow pointing to JFK and it says he is grasping his chest after being shot. He is sitting upright but appears slumped forward. It is a distressing photo.

Paula said...

I'll never forget that day... I was in 6th Grade at Nativity School in Lorain and the announcement came over the PA system that the President had been shot. We were asked to pray for him... A short time later, another announcement was made that he had died. School was let out for the day - everyone was so quiet...

Anonymous said...

Overshadowed by the JFK death, the 64 killed in the fire at the nsg home reformed nsg home care as it is today.
The site is around the corner from me. There is a documentary on the fire. There is a mass grave site in Norwalk at Woodlawn cemetary.

rae

-Alan D Hopewell said...

We were having a birthday party for Cynthia Williams in our third grade class at Boone , when the Principal announced that the President had ben shot. We went home early (Thanksgiving break was starting, anyhow), and I walked home.

When I got there, Walter Cronkite was announcing that President Kennedy was dead....up until then, I thought that only old people or bad people died.