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the shock of a nation: boomers recall shock of kennedy assassination WRITTEN BY Barbara Trainin Blank
THE KENNEDYS ARE NEVER FAR FROM THE PUBLIC EYE. BUT THE RECENT DIAGNOSIS OF Sen. Edward Kennedy’s brain tumor and the 40th anniversary last June of the slaying of Robert F. Kennedy underscore the legacy and symbolism, the triumphs and foibles, of what is arguably one of America’s most famous families. As the nation prepares to observe the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the thoughts of many boomers turn to that tragic day of November 22, 1963. Before posthumous revelations of personal misconduct and the conspiracy theories, much of the nation loved
november 22, 1963 Kennedy and the “Camelot” image of “one, brief shining moment” suggested by his widow, Jackie. The sense of loss over the death of the young, good-looking, idealistic president with the seemingly perfect family was keen indeed. Ann Stewart, a Fairview Township writer, remembers vividly JFK’s visit to her hometown of Lebanon when she was 5. “He was in the town square, and there were throngs of people,” she says. “I was kneehigh, but my uncle in the police department put me on his shoulders, so I saw JFK really close. I remember thinking he was very handsome.” Stephen Blank, a professor of national security studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, remembers seeing Kennedy during his presidential campaign swing in his native Brooklyn, N.Y. Later the nominee spoke at Madison Square Garden before a crowd of many thousands. “He was like a rock star,” Blank says.
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The day of the assassination, Stewart recalls, her principal came into every classroom and said the students needed to pray because Kennedy had been shot. “When I got home, our black-and-white television was on in the living room, and my mother was vacuuming and crying,” Stewart says. “When I asked her why, she said that no president had even been killed in her lifetime.” A feeling of grief engulfed Stewart’s entire family. “We all pinned so much hope on him and his administration,” she says. “We were dazzled by his persona and what he stood for. We were inspired.” Jay Miffoluf of Susquehanna Township, a retired federal employee and an actor, says he thought of the assassination more intensely recently because of a conversation with a 20-year-old who couldn’t imagine how shocking it had been. “I was 11 at the time, a seventh-grade student in a public school in Philadelphia,” Miffoluf says. “It was an unusually mild November day, and after lunch we had recess and played tag. Our class was very unruly that afternoon, and our art teacher was exasperated.” So when another teacher called her out of the room, and the art teacher came back in and told the students the President had just been shot, Miffoluf was incredulous. “My initial reaction was that it wasn’t possible,” he says. “Kennedy was very young and vibrant. We thought the teacher was joking, or trying to get back at us for misbehaving.” Almost the opposite occurred at Blank’s high school. He recalls that when the assistant principal announced over the loudspeaker that the school would close
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Clockwise from top left: John, Jr. walks with his namesake; the family at their Hyannis house, 1962; President Kennedy signs Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, October 1963; Presidential Fitness medal
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early that day because of an attempt on the President’s life and urged the students to recite special prayers, the skeptical biology teacher said: “You kids would do anything to get out of school.” The reality set in when the assistant principal broadcast a live radio report— probably Walter Cronkite’s. It sank in further when a stunned Blank kept a haircut appointment and heard on the barber’s radio that Kennedy had died. “I remember the barber, George, shaking his head disapprovingly, as if to say: ‘What kind of country is this?’” Blank says. It was only when one of the teachers in Miffoluf’s school had found a radio and heard the news that the governor of Texas had also been shot, and later that Kennedy had died, that the horror began to hit home. The girls started crying, and the teacher grew very emotional. “It was a time when you didn’t put down the President, and Kennedy was a very popular figure then,” Miffoluf says. “I couldn’t fathom it. He was so alive.” The news became even more real when Miffoluf watched the plane carrying Kennedy’s coffin on TV and saw the blood on Jackie Kennedy’s dress. “Until then, they said it happened, but it didn’t hit,”
And And so, so, my my fellow fellow Americans: Americans: ask ask not not
he recalls. “I’m not sure I had ever seen a
what what your your country country can can do do for for you you --
coffin before.”
ask ask what what you you can can do do for for your your country. country. My My fellow fellow citizens citizens of of the the world: world: ask ask not not what what America America will will do do for for you, you, but but
Blank, who was strongly interested in history and politics even at 13, says his reaction went beyond sadness and shock over the killing of a man he admired.
what what together together we we can can do do for for the the
“You just didn’t shoot presidents. There
freedom freedom of of man. man.
had been attempts on FDR and on
-- John John F. F. Kennedy, Kennedy, Inaugural Inaugural address, address, January January 20, 20, 1961 1961
Truman, but a lot of people didn’t know about those.” And, he added, hardly into mid-life, Kennedy was so young. ) ) )
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