Local seniors reminisce on John Kennedy's assassination and its aftermath
LANCASTER − For those not yet born on Nov. 22, 1963, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy may be just a footnote in history. But to those who were alive, it was a moment that shook the nation to its core.
Kennedy was shot and killed while traveling in a Dallas, Texas, motorcade. Lee Harvey Oswald is accused of shooting him. Oswald died two days later when Jack Ruby shot him in the basement of police headquarters as police were transporting him to jail.
Here are the thoughts of some local seniors who remember that historic day:
Terria Lowe
City resident Terria Lowe was 18 and was watching television when Kennedy was shot around 1 p.m. EST. Oswald is said to have shot Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, where he worked. But Lowe said she didn't think that was the case.
"I just didn't believe what they said was going on," she said. "I believe there was something else behind that. There was somebody else who organized the killing."
Lowe said she still believes that.
"Honestly, truly, I think our government was behind it," she said. "I think he (Kennedy) knew some stuff that they didn't want him to bring out and he was going to bring out some stuff. And they didn't want him to do that. I think that's what got him killed."
Lowe said she watched Oswald get shot on live TV and watched Kennedy's funeral. She said she felt sadness while watching the events unfold.
"I was horrified that it happened, just like everybody else," Lowe said. "It was just sad that his life had to be taken. He was doing great stuff and he was a great man. He had some things in his life that he shouldn't have been doing, but maybe that's the way things are supposed to go down. You never know."
Lowe said the Kennedy assassination is still reverberating in the country to this day.
"Because he was doing things that needed to be done and that hadn't been done," she said. "He was on the right track for things to be done in the future. I think if he still was our president that some of those things would have happened and maybe we wouldn't be having so many wars and stuff like that. Maybe he could have prevented some of that stuff."
Marty Gavin
Marty Gavin worked on Kennedy's campaign while in college and was 22 the day he died. The city resident said she was "completely devastated" by his death.
"The country was devastated," Gavin said. "It was a very, very, very bad time. We saw pictures of everything. Nothing much was filtered. Everything was so totally unexpected that nobody was prepared. Nobody was prepared. Kennedy was liked in many, many, many circles and disliked in others."
She said she thinks Oswald acted alone in the assassination.
"I don't think the man was smart enough to have anybody else with him," Gavin said. "No. Absolutely not. He shot from the depository on the sixth floor and got lucky. I think Oswald was out of his mind or didn't like him. Just didn't like him and thought he could do it and did it."
She said Kennedy was a good president.
"And (Lyndon) Johnson took over at a very difficult time," Gavin said. "And he had enough smarts to not run again."
She said those who lived through the assassination are still feeling its effects. But maybe not everyone.
"If you listen to people on Jeopardy they have no idea who he even was," Gavin said.
Larry Cox
Larry Cox was 8 on Nov. 22, 1963, and was in the third grade.
"School let out at 2:30," the Carroll resident said. "As I was walking down the sidewalk to get on the bus, everybody was yelling, 'The president's dead, the president's dead.' That's impossible. I knew enough that he's surrounded by security. I said that can't possibly happen. I got on the bus and every single bus had the radio turned on and announced it."
Kennedy died on a Friday. But Cox said it was old news by Monday.
"OK, the vice president took over and everything's back to normal," he said. "The world didn't come to an end. But at that exact moment I was terrified. It was like, it just can't be. But my mother was crying when I got off the bus because she really liked him."
Cox said if not for the assassination, Kennedy would have probably just disappeared into history.
"When they're young like that (46), they've got nothing to look forward to the rest of their life," he said. "They're just kind of lost."
Dave Levacy
Fairfield County Commissioner Dave Levacy was 18 on the day Kennedy died.
"I remember that day distinctly, and there are certain days that stick out," he said. "He was a person we admired. I was really shocked, as well as my family was. I remember my mother's disbelief especially, how she took it. She also admired the man quite a lot."
Levacy is a space buff and said Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon by the end of the '60s was one of the reasons he was enamored by him.
"When that happened down in Dallas it's one of those things that difficult to describe," he said. "Here's the president of the United States who was assassinated. How can that happen? It was a shock. Again, it's one of those things that very difficult to describe."
Levacy said he thinks Oswald acted alone, but was encouraged and enabled by the Communalist Party.
"But as far as if they participated, I don't think so," he said. "I think he did it alone."
Levacy said the country is still feeling effects 60 years ago and that the country lost it's innocence that day.
"When you see somebody like the president of the United States and how they can be assassinated," he said. "You have that person up on a pedestal and think they're invincible. But in fact, they're human just like you and I.
"It was a sad time that we went through and later on some of the things that happened within the country. And, of course, Vietnam was still going on and President Johnson took the reins. It was not a good time, the '60s. There was a lot upheaval within that timeframe, and we're seeing some of that today."
jbarron@gannett.com
740-681-4340
Twitter: @JeffDBarron
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Local seniors share their memories of Kennedy assassination
