Editor’s Note: Ten years ago, Managing Editor Bruce Andriatch asked readers to share their stories from the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As we remember that tragic day 60 years ago today, we share their responses once again.
It’s a vague question, but virtually every American age 56 or so or older will know exactly what you want to know when you ask it this week:
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, remains the seminal moment in the lives of millions. Whether they heard it on television, from a loved one or over the public address system in school, the moment they learned that the president had been shot while riding in a motorcade through downtown Dallas is an indelible memory.
As the nation prepares to commemorate a day that still brings tears to people’s eyes a half-century later, we invited readers to share their stories.
Whether by email or on Facebook, hundreds answered the question. Reading them, it is impossible to not be struck by how many people vividly remember minute details of that day: precisely where they were, what someone was wearing, the emotion on the face or in the voice of the person sharing the news. Many people remember it as the first time – maybe the only time – they saw a loved one cry.
“My parents and siblings were as devastated as I was,” wrote Cheryl Johnson, a student at Kenmore West High School at the time. “It took a long time to move on with life the way it was. To this day I ask why this happened. I will never forget him and still ask why.”
What follows is a sampling of some of the responses.
I was in first grade and heard about JFK’s assassination just like anyone else at the time, through the news. I was in school then. The principal let everyone in school home for the day. Our teachers were crying (they were all older and female in 1963), our janitor lowered the flag to half-staff. The rest of the…
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