Remembering assassination of JFK

Nov. 13—Anita Ferrese's wedding anniversary always reminds her of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

That's because the nation's 35th president was killed one day before the former Anita Conti married her high school sweetheart Frank Ferrese at St. Vitus Church in New Castle.

"The priest, Father Francis, said 'aren't you going to cancel your wedding,?' Anita said. "I kind of stared at him."

Kennedy was hardly past his first thousand days in office when he was killed by an assassin's bullets on Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. At age 43, he was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die at 46.

As for Frank, he was 20 that day and Anita was 19. Both from large families, they expected 500 guests for their Nov. 23 wedding.

"We had planned it for over nine months," said Anita, 79. "We had all these people coming. My mother was the oldest of 16 children. Everyone made the food and cookies and all that stuff."

During their reception, Frank remembers a sadness among the guests.

"Yet they were happy for us," the 80-year-old retired contractor said.

"Everybody talked about it (the assassination), who did it and why," added Anita, a retired loan officer.

The couple went to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. Everyone they met offered condolences for Kennedy's death.

The Ferreses, who live in Plantation Acres, Florida, will celebrate their 60th anniversary this Thanksgiving day.

"We've got 24 people coming in for dinner," said Frank.

Robert and Sandy Ferrese

Frank's brother, Robert Ferrese, listened to the tragedy unravel on his transistor radio.

Stationed with the Army in Fort Hood, Texas, Robert had just returned from an overseas military operation.

"The day we came back from Germany is the day President Kennedy got shot," the 79-year-old said. "Everybody had transistor radios and the news came across he was shot, not knowing he was actually killed. We didn't have access to TV, just radio."

The Rockwell International retiree, who lives in New Castle, said everyone was in "total shock."

"He was a good President, the most popular President," Robert said. "I guess he did a great job."

His wife, Sandy, worked in the production office at Shenango China.

"I would always go home for lunch and my mother had it on TV," said the 80-year-old, who later worked for Pizza Joe's flagship store in Union Township for 32 years. "We had the TV going all day and night and the next few days."

Roy and Rosalie Rubin

Rosalie Rubin, 75, of Union Township remembers the iconic pictures. Kennedy's widow, Jackie, wearing the blood-stained pink suit. Jack Ruby shooting Kennedy's killer Lee Harvey Oswald. Three-year-old John Jr. saluting his father's flag-draped casket outside St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

"I remember people crying," said Rosalie, who retired from the Lawrence County Association for Responsible Care.

The news was announced over the public address system at school and everyone listened to the radio and rumors that Kennedy survived.

"He was just so young and he had scruples," Rosalie said. "He was kind-hearted."

Her 76-year-old husband, Roy, was in class at New Castle High School when he learned about the President's assassination.

"Everybody was so upset," said the retired musician.

Bob and Judi Naugle

To this day, Bob Naugle, 79, believes President Kennedy had the potential to make some real change in the country.

"I think from his presentations and just listening to him give speeches, this was a person who really cared about the country," said the retired architect, who worked for Eckles Architecture & Engineering in New Castle.

Bob was sitting in the living room at the Sigma Nu fraternity house at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon, when he got the news.

"We immediately went to the TV room and began to watch the events unfold," he said. "We were glued to the TV. It was very frustrating."

Bob's then girlfriend and now his wife, Judi, was a sophomore education major at Slippery Rock State Teachers College at the time. The two met in third grade while attending Sunday School at Second United Presbyterian Church in New Castle.

Judi, 78, remembers 40 to 60 girls jammed in one room of her North Hall dormitory watching the coverage on a small television.

"We shared that moment together," the retired New Castle teacher said. "I think the somberness existed for weeks. The whole country just stopped at the time."

Sylvia Dombeck

Sylvia Dombeck remembers how things differed in the early 1960s from today.

"Kennedy asked not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country," the Volant nurse said. "(For) a lot of politicians now, it's just all about what's in it for me."

"JFK was a veteran," she added. "He was a true hero."

Dombeck referred to the night of Aug. 1, 1943, when an 80-foot Naval boat, for which Kennedy was the commander, was struck in the South Pacific by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy helped his crew members to a nearby set of islands.

As an eighth-grader in Ridgway, Dombeck said she was in gym class and students were taken into the hallway so they could be told the news of Kennedy's assassination.

"Everyone was crying and screaming," she said. "The whole nation was mourning. Anywhere you went, people were crying. There was a giant sadness."

She can't forget Jackie holding her husband's head after the shooting.

"She had his brains on that suit," Dombeck said. "That's what I remember."

Joanne Kalacinski

Joanne Kalacinski was at a small newspaper in Wilmington, Delaware, where she worked in the business office while studying at nearby Goldey Beacom College. It wasn't until after Kalacinski left the newspaper and arrived at her dorm that she heard the news.

"I walked in and the whole dorm was in the living room watching television," the 78-year-old Shenango Township woman said. "I had to find a seat. It was kind of overwhelming at the time."

Kalacinski liked Kennedy.

"He was articulate," she said. "He was young. He had a wife and children. He seemed to care more about people than the other politicians. He was a human being."