Where Were You When JFK Was Killed?

**Scottathew** · November-19-13, 03:11 PM

My oldest parent was 11. I was nowhere to be seen. This topic has inspired me to ask my parents if they remember the moment of when they were told.

**piczka** · November-19-13, 03:46 PM

I was in Chicago working as an assistant in the Cook County Morgue. I had just exited an elevator when the operator announced over the paging system that the president was dead. That moment is branded in my mind forever.

**jackie5275** · November-19-13, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by 56packman

jackie5275--Reagan wasn't killed, and the cold war was down to a dull roar by then. The cold war was very real, and very "warm" at the moment.

So schools were closed because people thought Kennedy's death gave the go ahead for Russia to drop the bomb that day?

**Det_ard** · November-19-13, 05:01 PM

Were schools closed after the events of 9/11? I don't remember but I know I closed my office that day and sent everyone home. I'm not sure how you expect people to function normally with the shock of the news, the desire for more information and the human tendency to want to be with those you're close to during an upsetting event.

**Lowell** · November-19-13, 05:18 PM

I am beginning to wonder if Gnome started this thread to get us out our ages. One will note he has not given us his "where I was".

I was in a freshman college Political Science class at Taylor University. My professor, Dr. Kan Ori a Japanese national, burst into the room, tears in his eyes, and made a choked announcement that the President had been shot and probably killed.

One of the most memorable features was that radio and television played somber and funereal music for the next few days without commercial break. I must have heard "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" aka the US Navy Hymn a hundred times. We mostly hung out and watched the TV coverage. So I saw the Oswald assassination live as a result by [ahem] Detroiter Jack Ruby.

**Kathleen** · November-19-13, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

Were schools closed after the events of 9/11? I don't remember but I know I closed my office that day and sent everyone home. I'm not sure how you expect people to function normally with the shock of the news, the desire for more information and the human tendency to want to be with those you're close to during an upsetting event.

Neither the elementary school or the high school attended by our sons in 2001 closed on 9/11. However, at the elementary school, they did not share the news with students, preferring to wait for the parents to be with their children when they learned about the tragedy. Of course, in the high school, the news was on their in-classroom televisions. Certainly the technology advances make any such decisions very different today than in 1963.

**townonenorth** · November-19-13, 05:56 PM

I was in second grade. The report of the shooting prompted prayer in the classroom, and the nun teaching us was in shock, probably. After they found out he was dead, we were released for the day.

Most of the memories I have of the event itself, was of the coverage on TV. Here's a link to a youtube channel that carries all the pertinent coverage of the weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7X...?feature=watch

**Kathleen** · November-19-13, 05:59 PM

I was in 1st grade at St. Clare of Montefalco in Grosse Pointe Park. Room 2. Our teacher was Sr. Mary Jordan. I remember the principal's announcement informing us of the death of President Kennedy. I do not remember whether we were let out of school early, but of course know that once us kids got home, I watched all the television coverage. I don't think we had school on Monday because I vividly recall watching the funeral and associated coverage on television all day Monday.

The assassination of JFK was the first historical event that I can recall in my lifetime. It made an impact, but probably did not change my life that way it might have changed adults' lives.

Still to this day, I feel a kinship with Caroline Kennedy because we are the same age and I can't imagine losing my father in such a tragic and senseless way. In fact, while watching some of the shows on this week, we wondered how Caroline is doing right now amidst all this media coverage of the event, the death of her father, and being the only one left from the immediate family. Even as she is in Japan taking on her U.S. ambassadorship, there is so much talk of JFK.

RIP, JFK!

**Ray1936** · November-19-13, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by 48307

My oldest parent was 11. I was nowhere to be seen. This topic has inspired me to ask my parents if they remember the moment of when they were told.

48307, please....while you're at it....ask all about your grand parents, great grandparents, and so on........there's no time like NOW to start putting your family history together. I wish I had done so fifty years ago.

**catch22** · November-19-13, 06:18 PM

I was in 7th grade math class when the principal came on the PA and called all the teachers to the office. My teacher came back a few minutes later and told us that the president was dead and we were excused for the rest of the day. I walked home and told my mother [[who hadn't heard) and she almost fainted. Sat glued to the TV for the next few days, including seeing LHO getting shot on live TV.

**Gannon** · November-19-13, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

I am beginning to wonder if Gnome started this thread to get us out our ages. One will note he has not given us his "where I was".

I think he can neither confirm nor deny any of his locations throughout the sixties. <nudge, nudge, wink, wink>

**Gannon** · November-19-13, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

48307, please....while you're at it....ask all about your grand parents, great grandparents, and so on........there's no time like NOW to start putting your family history together. I wish I had done so fifty years ago.

great advice, thanks

**jiminnm** · November-19-13, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

So schools were closed because people thought Kennedy's death gave the go ahead for Russia to drop the bomb that day?

That was a real fear at the time, especially since the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the discovery of Russian missiles in Cuba and the naval blockade of Cuba only a year before. That was one reason why LBJ took the oath of office so quickly. It was important to show the world a smooth transition of power.

**jiminnm** · November-19-13, 06:43 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

48307, please....while you're at it....ask all about your grand parents, great grandparents, and so on........there's no time like NOW to start putting your family history together. I wish I had done so fifty years ago.

I agree Ray. I am doing it now and there are a lot of questions I would like to ask folks that are no longer around to answer. Far too often, all of the information is not in the documents.

**lpg** · November-19-13, 07:08 PM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

So schools were closed because people thought Kennedy's death gave the go ahead for Russia to drop the bomb that day?

We still practiced air raid drills only a couple of years earlier. My mother gave me a dog tag like the ones issued in the service to wear to school. I still have it.

**lpg** · November-19-13, 07:15 PM

I was in Mr. Feryok's class at Huff Jr. high in Lincoln Park. We heard crying and loud voices outside the classroom. One of the kids had a transistor radio. He put it on his desk and we listened in stunned silence. We had no idea what was going to happen next.

**Scottathew** · November-19-13, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

Were schools closed after the events of 9/11?

Afternoon classes at the Center for the Advanced Studies and Arts [[CASA) were canceled. I was supposed to go there for my programming and networking class.

**A2Mike** · November-19-13, 07:19 PM

That day during my first term at WSU was cold and cloudy, and since I and most other students tried to keep our Friday classes to a minimum the campus was usually pretty quiet after noon, so I took the bus downtown, transferred to the Baker bus, and got home about 1PM. My dad was at work and my mom was out so, feeling listless, I lay down to take a nap. A little later my mom came home, so I went downstairs and she said that she had been going down an aisle at Food Fair when a lady looked at her blankly and said that the president had been shot, and ran into the same lady coming down the next aisle, this time just shaking her head. I told mom that if the president had been shot it certainly be on TV, so we tuned in and he had indeed been shot but it wasn't apparent until some minutes that he had died. We then spent the next four days with the TV set on watching Frank McGee [[whom we liked better than Cronkite) and others covering the most riveting story we'd ever witnessed.

**jcole** · November-19-13, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

So schools were closed because people thought Kennedy's death gave the go ahead for Russia to drop the bomb that day?

The news broke at 1:40pm EST, so in all probability, most schools were within an hour to an hour and a half from dismissing for the day anyway. There was little hope of maintaining any kind of order so it was beneficial to send them home. Also bear in mind that most mothers back then were the stay at home type so sending the kids home would not have been the hardship that it would be today and back then most of us walked to and from school, at least in the city and probably in the near suburbs.

**mikefmich** · November-19-13, 10:31 PM

Going between 6-7th hour class, shortcut across the yard between wings.

Ron ask Van the custodian, "Is it true'? I said is what true, Van replied the President was shot in Texas. Went into shop class, the office PA system was piping updates via radio. Wasn't in there long when it was announced he'd passed.

**Django** · November-20-13, 04:36 AM

I was in Belleville High School in two different rooms, my Moms class and my Dads class, they had not yet even kissed.

Jackie, no Reagan wasn't killed but thats about as close to what our elders experienced as we did as I remember hearing the news of Reagan being shot. I dont think you mentioned anything about the cold war but Reagan sure put it in our heads of the possibility.

LOL on Gnomes whereabouts on that day.

To be perfectly honest a day I remember is the death of Kurt Cobain and I know how silly that my sound. I just dont have that much respect for todays power. The inside bombing of the world trade center most sticks in my mind as a point in history where time seemed to stop.

Ray1936, I couldnt agree with you more. Im currently trying to get a vision of where my great grandparents came from in the South. I want my kid to know and pass down our past. Nobody wants to be forgotten. Today we have blogs and Facebook which will no doubt always be around to look back on but my Grandparents past is so in the wind it could just disappear forever.

Sorry to get off track, I was in my Dads nuts and my Moms whatever it is, hell I was probably just the nutrients in some jar of Tang.

**jackie5275** · November-20-13, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

Were schools closed after the events of 9/11? I don't remember but I know I closed my office that day and sent everyone home. I'm not sure how you expect people to function normally with the shock of the news, the desire for more information and the human tendency to want to be with those you're close to during an upsetting event.

That makes sense.