CHAPTER
13
THE NEW FRONTIER,
1961-1979 Wi
ilson Thomas returned from mass at St. Francis Catholic Church in Provo on Thursday, 22 November 1963, t u r n e d on the television, and heard the shocking report—America's first Catholic U.S. president had been shot in Dallas, Texas. That night, a prayer service was held at St. Francis Church, and during the next several days masses were held where parishioners prayed for the repose of the soul of fohn F. Kennedy 1 Others in the community were just as shocked—especially the young who related to the idealism of Kennedy's proclaimed "New Frontier." Robert Carter, a school teacher at O r e m l u n i o r High, watched the events of those days in late November. "My sister had a television, so I went to Provo to watch the news," he recalled.2 Carter, along with other county residents, was again stunned as he watched lack Ruby shoot Lee Oswald, the suspected assassin of the president, on television. The violence of Dallas came right into the living rooms of thousands of people in Utah County, just as it did in millions of homes across the nation. The president's tragic death b r o u g h t together most of Utah 296
