That Day In Dallas
Twelve Newsmen Remember Nov. 22, 1963
Some were newsmen, some studying for that time; all recall the day -- professionally or personally
Last updated Monday November 24th, 2008Edited By Duane Bradford
At the 45th anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy -- a shocking revelation for some of us still hanging around -- I wondered if anyone besides me remembered it. I asked the 11 persons listed below to tell us what they remember of that day, either professionally or (since some were just studying to be journalists) their personal reflections. I am the 12th.
Former CBS newsman Lew Wood sets the tone of the day with parts of a segment of memoirs he is writing. Lew, with Dan Rather and Nelson Benton, pulled duty with their camera crews in Dallas the day Kennedy was killed.
On the other hand, I was lying on my back in my doctor’s office where a heart attack was ruled out in favor of indigestion from consuming a Cuban lunch of doubtful parentage. When an attendant burst into the treatment room and yelled that the President had been shot, I felt a surge of guilt consuming all of that medical time as everyone ran to the office television set.
As a police reporter for The Tampa Tribune four days earlier, I had covered part of Kennedy’s appearance in the city. A hint of impending presidential security problems hit me upon learning that about 50 people in Tampa had been rounded up and held on tenuous "open charges" until the President left town. That knowledge was magnified when I watched as two secret service agents unloaded two large black automatic weapons from the trunk of the old Queen Mary Cadillac, assemble them and slip them inside a pocket lining of a special jacket they were wearing. Roundup? Automatic weapons? What was happening? My answer came four days later.
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In a story by former CBS newsman Lew Wood, he tells of his experiences covering a Presidential campaign swing through the South that ended in Dallas...
Martin Dyckman sees controlled pandemonium in his St. Petersburg Times newsroom...
George Hanna remembers details decades ago but cannot locate his eyeglasses today...
Al Hutchison met the first big challenge of his newspaper career...
Walker Lundy recalls a stirring memory in a crowded stadium...
Terry Plumb remembers a somber Notre Dame University campus...
Leland Hawes recalls Kennedy’s Tampa speech on Nov. 18...
Don Pride remembers a warm day on Clearwater Beach, but it was nearly deserted...
Ron Pride says his sports staff was told to get their section to bed early to make way for the "real news guys"...
Mike Pride, a high school senior and sports stringer for the Clearwater Sun, recalls a dash from class to the paper at hearing the news...
Jim Purks, then an AP reporter in Birmingham, recalls an emotional devastation at seeing the flash...
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