JFKennedy Assasinated 50 years ago!

by Wendy
(www.retirement-online.com)

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

Do YOU remember where you where when you heard the news? Add your personal memories of this historic day below!

Thanks! Wendy

Comments for JFKennedy Assasinated 50 years ago!

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JFK
by: Ade Mohammed

I remember that I was at a boarding school St Mary's in Hastings Sussex England. I felt sad that such a charismatic young president should have been so brutally killed. I was greatly moved by the young son saluting the coffin.

Over the years I read everything that I saw related to the killing and the Kennedys in general.

Very sad and it is a testimony that the whole world still salutes JFk 50 years on.

His famous words of think not what your country can do for you is used very much in my part of the world.

RIP JFK.
JFK ---what can you do for your country?
by: Andrew

I had just finished my final year at secondary high in Australia

It was a huge shock and a time of disbelief and sadness, how could an American president, the leader of the world, be shot, by his own country man?

Still have trouble understanding.

Andy from Australia.
Kennedy
by: PatLyn

I was 15 - in a history class in our small town of 300 people, high school class of 19 kids.

Honestly, I did not know the enormity of the event at all. I was very unaware of politics as my parents never, and I mean never, talked about politics at all. I have no idea to this day if they even voted - I never remember it.

THEN watching it on TV it hit me what a big deal this was. I wish I was more aware but I just was not. The Beetles meant more to me.

Now I am a Kennedy book crazy - the newest books with Jackie Kenney's tapes and the newest with John Kennedy's tapes. Love it all.

I retire soon and I want to go to the Kennedy library - spend as much time as I want there. I can't get enough now.
When JFKennedy Assassinated, I was 13years kid
by: Ashfaq Gulzar

I am Ashfaq Gulzar, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. In 1963, I was 13 years kid student of 8th Standard class living my birth place town Sharakpur, Distt. Sheikhupura, Punjab, Pakistan.

At about mid of the day at the time of mid day recess I heard the sad news that MR. John F. Kennedy, the President of USA had been assassinated.

At that time I had very little knowledge about the US, but for sure that USA and Pakistan are enjoying very good relations. Our teacher Mirza Tahir Baig also heard this sad news and he discontinued the the routine studies and delivered a lecture about USA and Mr. JFKennedy. The day was very sad.

Now I am a old man of age 64, to day I remember that sad day and pray for him being lovely and outstanding person and President of the USA. May God bless his soul in peace. JFK great you were, this old person still love you very much.

Ashfaq Gulzar
JF Kenndy Assasination
by: Faith McClenny

We were living in a small town in southern Minnesota. I had the TV on in my little son's play room. After cleaning the house, I stepped in his room and couldn't believe what I was seeing on the screen.

At first I thought perhaps it was preview for a movie. I laid down my cleaning supplies and sat down watched all the action on the screen and listened to all the comments.

It seemed unreal and I couldn't believe it was really happening. For the next three days my family was glued to the TV and we all watched the drama unfold.

It was a very sad time and it really changed the country.
JFK
by: Roger

I was 15 and in school. The thing I remember most was the girls crying and getting up from the desk running out the class room door.
Remember JFK well!
by: Anonymous

My mother & I were at the laundry..someone came in and announced it....we finished our work with tears...headed to her house..sat by the TV..as being from Massachusetts we felt even deeper upset. then I headed home..as did my husband.

Watched TV...next day we took a ride & parked along the x-press way to see the family head down to Hyannisport...in the car. It was Jackie, Archbishop Cushing & the children. ..it was quite a sight....

Everyone near me was crying....headed home & as I said to my husband..I can't take the TV any longer..so, we put the baby in the car....headed down to the Cape...and walked along the canal....as everyone else was doing.

Later, we did drive into Hyannisport...many guard stations along the way..... the house was quiet.....
I remember well
by: Donna Tyson

I was a High School Senior in my World Problems in Tacoma, WA. We were not allowed to go home, but no work was done. We maintained the regular schedule, but just sat around and mourned. First we heard the President had been shot, it was some time later we heard that he had died.

Because he was such a young President, we all liked him very much. Actually, it had just been about a month earlier that he had come to Tacoma and we got out of school to go see him at the Cheney Baseball Stadium. The place was packed with people; of course with a lot of security, including gunmen on the roof of the bleachers. Our group ended up out in center field.

Kennedy was at a Podium placed at the Pitchers Mound. We really could not see a thing. I remember jumping up in the air to see and even my quick glimpse of the President was exciting - as he had plenty of charisma.

I finally got home on that fateful day and found the house empty. My Mom sold Avon at the time and was out seeing one of her customers. I think she felt the need to talk to someone.

I quickly turned on the TV. Shortly, I heard a funny noise in the nearby fireplace. I heard it several times and wondered if I was "losing" it.

It wasn't too long before my Mom got home and I told her about the noise in the fireplace. She had heard it earlier and thought a fairly large bird had gotten caught in the chimney. She had called the Humane Society, but with the sudden turn of events no one came.

The next day the bird was still caught in the chimney. We called the Humane Society again. My Dad and I had gone to the store and so
we missed being there when the HS officer came to the house. My Mom said it was a red bird (fairly large), called a Towhee and that it was very pretty. They were not common to our area.

Our family was glued to the TV all weekend, like everyone else. I was the only member of the family watching the live broadcast when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby

When we went back to school, maybe the next Tuesday - the student teacher in our World Problems class (where we had first heard the news) surprised us with a Pop Quiz on World Issues. Nothing to do with the National Tragedy. I didn't think that was fair, but I guess it was his way of telling us to get on with our life.

At home
by: James

I was 17 and at home watching my family's black and white TV; waiting for my friend to call round, when suddenly the awful news came on. I'll Never forget it.
JFKennedy Assasinated 50 years ago!
by: Diana

I hesitated to post this. It was a difficult time.

I was living in the Chicago suburbs. At age 47, my Mother developed cancer and she was buried the afternoon before JFK's assassination. Our family was grieving and everything on TV and radio was "funeral."

It is ironic but true: my mother looked very much like Jackie Kennedy and dressed like her too.
The Day Kennedy was shot
by: Nancy

Yes! I remember and I remember the days that followed afterwards.

I was a freshman in high school and remember they announced it over the intercom after Kennedy was shot. I heard someone say, "Kennedy had been shot", but it didn't sink in and they also didn't tell us right away that he had been killed. I also remember seeing live footage of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvy Oswald. This was a very bad time and I don't enjoy seeing the footage of Jackie shielding her husband's body after he had been shot.

I have a soft place in my heart for JFK as he was the one who started Peace Corps and because of him, I spent 2 very happy years of my life in Peace Corps Morocco.
Working in a sweat shop...
by: Sharyn~~~CANADA

But have come a long way baby!

l was 16, working at my work station in a factory at Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

l will never forget, l was allowed to listen to the radio. Caught everyone off guard! None of my work buddies could believe what we were hearing - we all thought the radio announcer was playing a joke.

Like the "war of the worlds", a life x ago !

However, the story was true, and so sad, many people liked that man in that position in the USA.
And that is my 2 cents worth...
The Day JFK was Assassinated!
by: Thomas Harvey

On Friday, November 22, 1963, I was an 18 year old high school senior with two Detroit News paper routes and also the station captain of a local Detroit News substation where the papers were distributed to the other carriers. Besides delivering papers to my 125 customers, I had the responsibility of counting out and distributing the papers to the other carriers who picked them up at the substation. Typically, my school schedule as a senior allowed me to be at my substation by around 1 o'clock in the afternoon where I would pick up my papers and then deliver them to my customers. One of my routes was in the City East Detroit and the other was in the City of Warren. I was able to handle having two routes and the station captains job with the aid of my 1953 Chevy which I paid for from my own earnings. Then I would return to the office and pass out papers to the other carriers for the substation manager.

On that fateful day I learned of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy shortly after arriving at the substation to pick up my papers. Obviously the news was shocking to everyone and it was difficult to concentrate on anything else, but I remember delivering my routes in the rain, and getting bit by a customer's dog.

Upon returning to my Detroit News substation, my manager told me that an extra edition to the newspaper was being published and he wanted me to stay around after the first edition was distributed to the other carriers. He said, after the extra edition was delivered to the office, he would send me out to the corner of 9 Mile road and Gratiot Avenue in East Detroit to sell individual copies of the paper. I told my manager about getting bit by the dog and he said, I should probably get a Tetanus shot. Later I drove myself to Saratoga Hospital in Detroit for treatment of the dog bite. I paid $8 dollars for the treatment and received a Tetanus shot before returning to the substation to pick up the extra edition of The Detroit News.

I remember selling probably hundreds of copies of The Detroit News EXTRA Edition well past 9 p.m. on that corner that night, in the cold, and the rain for ten cents a copy. Maybe because of the shock of the news that day, or maybe because it was just so gruesome, I never kept a copy of that Extra edition of the newspaper for myself. Also, as well as I can remember and relate what I was doing for most of that day, I forgot what the headline of that Extra edition of The Detroit News said. My mind tells me it was probably "Kennedy Assassinated", or "Kennedy Killed", or something similar. However, through the power of Google I've learned that the headline strangely read, "KILL KENNEDY" and had a subheading of "Shot in Car by Dallas Assassin". With a headline so unusual, one could even call it bizarre, you would think that would be the one thing about that horrible day I wouldn't forget in my lifetime. It has been fifty years, but I think shock more than time made me forget that awful headline.
The day JFK died
by: Carol K

I think everyone of a certain age remembers that day. I was working as a private secretary for a doctor and had a little radio on and I heard the news. I went running into his office with the news and we were both aghast.

I remember being glued to the television for three days because all normal broadcasting was suspended.

Younger people have no idea of the impact this made on the country at the time. It seems like yesterday.
I was 8 years old.
by: Wendy

I remember the day, like many of you do.

I was home, sick, from school... lying on the couch watching TV. Mom took the day off work to care for me.

The TV program was interrupted by the News Flash -- Kennedy was shot!

Mom and I watched the news updates all afternoon.
She was constantly on the telephone calling relatives and friends so they could get the news.

I was 8 -- that's all I really remember. I didn't get the political significance, but I did feel profound sadness. So disturbing for society to witness what happened, right on tv, as happens in many worldwide disasters nowadays.

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