Our 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, died on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963. At 43, he was our youngest president ever elected. At 46, he was also our youngest president to have died. He was buried on Monday, Nov. 25.
That year’s somber Thanksgiving Day took place on Thursday, November 28. Ask any one of your neighbors or friends or relatives old enough to remember: “Where were you when our highly respected president was shot and killed by an assassin?” Their reply, most likely, will be clear and quick, void of the 50 years of memories that have passed since this American tragedy. It was “a moment in time” when our beloved country lost its innocence and feeling of security. Here are responses from three of my Sun City friends and three of my Sun City relatives (including myself) giving their perspective of a life-altering experience from so long ago.
Nancy Cihlar: “I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was in sixth grade. I sat in the third row, four seats from the back of the room. Our principal came over the loudspeaker and announced that he [the president] was shot and asked us all to pause and say a prayer. Our teacher asked us to put our heads down on the desk and pray for his recovery. We all did, and you could hear a pin drop in the room. Shortly after, she [our principal] came on and said he had died. Then they disbanded school for the day. We all went home and were glued to the T.V. for the next four days.”
Nancy Moore: “We [my husband and I] were in Gelnhausen, Germany at the Officers Club having a Thanksgiving dinner. The men were immediately put on alert and had to leave to go to the (Army) base and stand ready in case of hostile activities. The women and children had to get back to their quarters.”
Joanie Souchek: “I was working as a secretary through a temp service at a box factory on North Avenue, I think in Carol Stream …. We were all so shocked that this could happen in America at this time in history …. We were all glued to our T.V.s during the funeral.”
Kathy Dace: “I was walking down the street in Champaign on my way to a class at U of I. Someone passed me with a portable radio playing. He turned to me as he passed and said, with disbelief and horror, that our president had been shot. Time stood still for us all in that moment of knowledge.”
Nick Koplos: “I was excavating for a new home foundation in Des Plaines. I remember it vividly! I discussed the devastating happening with two home builder contractors who were on the site right after I initially heard the shocking news.”
Joanie Koplos: “I still remember my feeling of great loss. Even though I had come from a Republican household, I had joined the Young Democrats Organization at Champaign’s state university, mainly because I saw this youthful, well-spoken, and good-looking presidential candidate when Mr. Kennedy had visited our campus, during his campaigning only three years earlier. I can’t remember what I was doing on his actual day of death, but I do remember being mesmerized as I sat (in my independent house front parlor), viewing the television’s coverage of his funeral cortege and his grieving widow and her two very young children. Having just completed the previous week’s student teaching, I remember thinking that I would soon go home (for the Thanksgiving holidays) to the stability of my family for much discussion on his loss.”
