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Dayton Memories > WHERE WERE YOU WHEN PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS SHOT?
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS SHOT?
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driver62
132 posts
Nov 13, 2008
6:56 AM
I was in the USAF sationed in Germany at the time. I was in the base bowling alley when the AP's (Air Police) came in and said the president had been shot.

Everything on base closed down and we were told to return to our barracks.

As we were out in the boondocks on the East German border, we had no way of getting any more info until we received the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper either the next day or the day after.

The Army unit stationed there went on alert and the tanks headed for the border. Nothing happened of course but it was scary being stuck out there and not knowing any details.
Becky73
39 posts
Dec 03, 2008
8:40 PM
I was sitting in my 3rd grade class at Shoup Mill elementary when the principal interrupted class over the intercom. She stated the facts and said that classes were dismissed and we were to return home as we normally would at dismissal. ( Wow - could never happen that way now. Nobody would be home.) So I walked home with the rest of the neighborhood kids. During all the TV aftermath, such as the funeral, my Mother made me watch. I was quite resentful I couldn't go outside to play, but bless her in retrospect. And yes, we managed to bungle through it without benefit of grief counselors. I recall no one being happy about it thank heavens.
davew
5 posts
Dec 04, 2008
11:15 AM
I was sitting in my junior English class at Colonel White Highschool staring out of the window and waiting for the bell to ring.
Keugene48
5 posts
Dec 04, 2008
3:50 PM
I was in study hall at Patterson Co-op and I heard a boy say "the president was shot". I really thought it was the first line to a joke and I waited for him to give the punch line. I have no idea how he found out at that time but soon after we were called for an assembly. Mr. Hurst, our principal, said "children our president is dead". We were also sent home early and I remember on the city bus ride home how quiet everyone was. I watched the funeral and it broke my heart to see his young children left fatherless. I missed the Jack Ruby shooting, I think I was in church when it happened.

Last Edited by on Dec 04, 2008 3:53 PM
JackZ
27 posts
Dec 05, 2008
11:34 AM
I was sitting in my 2nd grade class at Immaculate Conception elementary school when the news was broadcasted over the PA. After that they played music for everyone. They dismissed us from school early that day. It was especially hard on our folks since he was the first Catholic president.
laynel
6 posts
Dec 17, 2008
4:55 AM
I remember it vividly as well. I was at home recovering from pneumonia (in the first grade). My mom was there with me. Walter Cronkite came on TV and said solemnly, "The President is dead." I whispered to my stuffed giraffe in my arms, "Did you hear that? The President is dead." My mom walked slowly upstairs and lay down across her bed -- it was her 43rd birthday. The phone rang -- it was my dad calling from work. I went upstairs to tell her, and she was crying silently into her pillow, which scared me more than anything.

We watched the funeral on TV, and I remember feeling so sorry for the little boy in short pants saluting his daddy's casket.

I also remember hearing the commotion live on the radio when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, and watching the film later on TV.

Even today, the tragedies that have befallen that little branch of the Kennedy family break my heart.
SeeDavid
109 posts
Dec 17, 2008
11:47 PM
I, also was sent home early by bus in the third grade, being told over the loud speaker in school at by our thrid grade tearful teacher that President Kennedy had been shot by someone who had no love and respect for our country or the President. I wondered why? He seems like such a nice man and Father. Our country was the best the the world! I got off the bus, came in the front door, called to my Mother to tell her of this awful news and found her, also in tears watching television and telling me to "hush". It was "hushed" in our household for many weeks thereafter. My boisterous Daddy could hardly speak for many days. It hurt our hearts, it hurt our Country.
President Kennedy had his motorcade stop on the entrance ramp to I-75 in Vandalia when my Dad took my little brother and I to see him when he went to the court house. My Dad "threw" me in front of the President's limousine,(as I remember as was told), and put my handicapped brother near the entrance ramp as well. They stopped, The President got out, shook hands with my brother and helped him back into his crutches, hugged me, shook hands with my Dad, and we sat back in our woven lawn chairs and waved good bye to him as he headed South on Interstate 75. I will remember him that way, as I always have...still 53 and a wonderful thought of a nice man.
Doug68
23 posts
May 03, 2009
2:20 PM
I was in the eighth grade at Northmont Junior High School in Englewood when we received word that JFK had been shot. Details of the shooting were unknown at the time. But coming just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, rumors were rampant, especially one that ICBM's (or bombers)launched from the USSR were about to fall from the sky. Afterall, WPAFB was just a stone's throw away. The dispair and fear was real.

Shortly after the assassination, the family left for a visit to see another part of the family who resided in Delaware (my father had just died). On the way, we detoured to Washington, D.C. and attended JFK's funeral. I'll never forget the sombering sound of the drums during the funeral procession.

On the way, it seemed like "She's a Fool" by Leslie Gore and "Popcicles and Icicles" by the Murmaides played incessantly on the car radio.

Ironically, the kids on our school bus thought that the bus driver looked uncannily like Lee Harvey Oswald. From that time on, we referred to him as "Lee Harvey," - not to his face, of course.

Last Edited by on May 03, 2009 6:12 PM
rodat6
26 posts
May 03, 2009
2:41 PM
I was 21, partnership in a business in New Orleans, collecting bad debts. I was in the office when I heard the news and I was stunned, could not work for a week, thought LBJ had something to do with it and as it turned out, the History Channel years later said the same thing, that he was involved.

I was a former resident of Dallas, had lived and worked among the people, worked downtown around Delaney Plaza bought a rifle from a friend years later in New Orleans, it was a 7.65 Italian Carcano rifle, the same make and caliber that Lee Harvey Oswald owned. I was a member of the NRA at the time, took part in shooting matches but when it came to firing that blunderbuss of a rifle I strapped it to a post and pulled a string that was around the trigger. After that I held it and fired, used the same rounds, military purchased from a broker in New York, that rifle had quite a kick. Later sold the rifle for $5 having purchased it for $15. Not a good rifle for target practice.

That was a stunning period in my life, that was a horrible event but more were to follow as we found out.
Doug68
24 posts
May 03, 2009
6:09 PM
For rodat6.....I was going through tactical weaponcraft training at the Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy in London, OH in the 1970's and one of the instructors was a former Dallas cop who had retired not too many years after JFK was killed. During a break, I asked him if there was any "roadroom skuttlebutt" by the Dallas cops regarding a possible conspiracy and he advised that some believed LBJ may have somehow been involved.

I was at a garage sale a few years ago and I bought for $1 a brick that supposedly came from the Texas School Book Depository. I was rather skeptical, since the TSBD still remains - but for a dollar, what the heck. Well, it was kinda old......
RickD
5 posts
May 04, 2009
1:53 PM
I was in eighth grade at Assumption Elementary School. Don't know what class because we didn't leave our room or desk except for recess and lunch. The anouncement came over the intercom and we all had to get down on on our knees to pray for him. Then the anouncement that he died and I don't remember any details for awhile. I was home watching the TV when Oswald was shot. It sure looked different than the movies. Everything just seemed sad for days and days.
jakspot@sprynet.com
4 posts
May 06, 2009
11:17 AM
My daughter was two years old and I was home that day watching "As the World Turns" on TV when Walter Cronkite interrupted and said that the President had been shot. Shortly, he returned, appearing tearful, and announced that the President was dead. It was shocking and hard to believe it could happen in this country. I don't think we left the TV set for more than a few minutes for the next several days. When Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, I couldn't believe my eyes. I think that was the first "live event" of its type on TV ever. I was in Dallas and saw Dealy Plaza many years later and was surprised that the area is so small. It seemed so large on TV, but maybe it was just the event that made it seem large.
newspace12x12
7 posts
May 08, 2009
8:43 PM
i was a third grader at mountain home AFB elementary in idaho. they announced it over the loudspeaker and sent us home early... this is my last post folks. i've dredged up enough ancient threads for one night. hope it was helpful..
carlatm75
3 posts
Jul 09, 2009
11:56 AM
I was in Miss Dale's 2nd grade class at Broadmoor Elementary in Trotwood. I remember Miss Dale telling us about the shooting. Then we watched the funeral on a TV that she brought into school.
JohnC
86 posts
Jul 10, 2009
6:55 AM
Rancho Cordova, CA. We lived there for about six years when my father worked on the Mercury Space program for Aerojet in Sacramento. I remember feeling very sad even though I was only six years old. We got a day off at school the day of the funeral and I watched it on TV. About the only things I remember from the funeral were the riderless horse with empty boots in the stirrups, and little John John saluting his father's casket...
Mike C
38 posts
Jul 14, 2009
6:53 PM
I was in 3rd grade at Eastmont Park School. Then I was watching the "live" tv when Oswald was shot.
Doug68
33 posts
Jul 22, 2009
7:08 AM
JohnC......This is my theory.....the brick I bought for a dollar was dropped from the 6th floor of the TSBD by Oswald. When the sight and sound of this drew everyone's attention away from the Grassy Knoll, the real gunman opened fire. Yeah-h.....that's the ticket. Anyone want to buy the dang thing? Right now, it is sitting beneath my desk in [un]plain view.
JohnC
89 posts
Aug 05, 2009
2:02 PM
Driver62-

Would that have been the Fulda Gap where WWIII supposedly was going to happen? Very cool story, by the way.
MikeM.
1 post
Aug 16, 2009
2:32 PM
I was a junior at Kiser H.S., sitting in study hall when the annoucement came over the intercom.
newsnot
11 posts
Aug 16, 2009
3:28 PM
i was with john bates a meat buyer for super value stores. we were marking meat for shipment to super valu stores in the dayton and surounding areas. does anyone know what happened to john bates?
RIVERDALE RAT
2 posts
Aug 23, 2009
12:04 AM
I was on the old #2 trolly bus going east on 5th street. some old lady got on the bus and told everyone. nobody really believed her. I remember it like yesterday.
dayton52
10 posts
Sep 10, 2009
3:48 PM
I was in the 4th grade at Kemp Elementary when the principal came on the speaker and told us the president had just been shot. I remember walking home and my mom sitting on the couch crying.
icsalum
9 posts
Sep 10, 2009
3:54 PM
I was in second grade at Immaculate Conception school
in Belmont. My teacher was Sister Jean Anne. The principal came over the loudspeaker announcing the
shooting - at first it was not clear that the President was dead. It was a warm Friday. We were off
Monday from school, and we watched the burial and procession on TV. The whole country was numb.
magran
9 posts
Jan 07, 2010
11:32 PM
I was announcement came over speaker in the classroomand and the teacher cried. It was really scary, but I remember walking out of the school and kids and people were running all different ways, I was only 6, and I walked across Main to our home West Norman Avenue. My Mother was looking for me walking close to home. They just told us to go home. As someone said above, that would not happen today. The sight of that playground in panic is etched in my mind.
mem
72 posts
Mar 29, 2010
1:13 PM
Working the 'day shift' at Schriber Machine and Press Compamy on Webster Street in Northridge.
RCINKY
19 posts
Mar 30, 2010
6:28 PM
In Mrs. Lilgadaul's 4th grade class at Fairbrook Elementary in Beavercreek. I thought Jackie K. was the most beautiful woman in the world when I was 10.
nancy121
7 posts
Dec 12, 2010
6:22 PM
I was working at my first job Guild & Landis (under the clock at third and Main) when someone came in and said that he was shot. We were closed on the Monday so we could watch the funeral on tv
Fischer
24 posts
Dec 12, 2010
8:19 PM
Third grade at McGuffey Elementary, lined up with all my classmates walking down some steps between classrooms with our teacher, perhaps after lunch maybe, and a lady came over the intercom and announced it to the school- we all stopped to listen. I didn't quite understand the whole thing but I knew who Kennedy was and remember it all quite clearly. A bad day for us all to be sure as it turned out.
JBlair
20 posts
Dec 14, 2010
11:41 AM
Thanks for getting this one started, Driver62. Everyone's memories are as clear as proverbial crystal.
I was newly 18 and visiting my boyfriend's apartment in Glendale, CA, when a neighbor pounded on the door telling us the president had been shot. Boyfriend didn't believe her and she invited us into her apartment to see the TV coverage to prove it. She allowed only several seconds and then shooed us out her door. Boyfriend later said the neighbor and his mother were friends and even Mom had never been in there.
We turned on boyfriend's radio and listened to that until his mother burst in the door. She looked nearly in shock. She'd been sitting in her doctor's waiting room when he burst through the door and told his patients what had happened and that he was cancelling all of his appointments and they were to leave.
I left their apartment to go back to the Glendale YWCA, where I was living at the time, came down with a bug of some kind and couldn't work. For three days plus I sat in the lounge watching the TV coverage, crying with all the other residents. Can you imagine the grief of all girls with no guys around in front of whom they might squelch their reactions?
After that dreary Thanksgiving (eating turkey TV dinners back in BF's apartment, with no TV), I called my parents and Mom asked me if I wanted to come home. I blubbered out that I did and left the next day. That old Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Dayton (at First and Wilkinson) never looked better.

Last Edited by on Dec 14, 2010 11:47 AM
lonebear
12 posts
Mar 31, 2011
8:21 PM
I was in shop class my freshman year in H.S.. Everyone was stunned as they piped the radio over the loud speakers. I think they called off school for the rest of that week.
Perry401
43 posts
Mar 31, 2011
9:28 PM
I was in a social studies class at Horace Mann School. We were watching a movie about Washington DC. The film was old, and the projector had to be stopped periodically when the film got goofed up. At one point when the film stopped, the principal came over the school's PA system to tell everyone that the President apparently had been shot. We went back to watching the movie, and the projector got goofed up again just after the movie narrator said that seven presidents had died in office. At this time, the principal came back on the PA and announced that President Kennedy had died.

I remember one girl in our class became hysterical and couldn't stop crying. Many of us didn't even know who the Vice President was. Our teacher spent some time going over the way the Vice President would become President.

We were sent home early that afternoon. My mom had been shopping at the Maxim's store on Woodman Drive, and came home right after the announcement. It's good she did, because otherwise, we would have been home alone. I remember even my dad, who worked a civilian job on base, even came home early.

My brother and I went out and bought extra copies of the Dayton Daily News that afternoon. They were surprisingly easy to find.

We watched the TV coverage most of the weekend. However, A couple of friends and I had tickets for a mid-day showing of "How the West Was Won" at the Dabel Theater on the Saturday after the assasination. (You had to buy tickets in advance.) I still have the ticket stub. I was surprised that people there seemed totally un-affected by the things going on in Dallas and Washington.

We did not go back to classes until after the funeral. The first thing we did in the social studies class after we got back was write our congressman letters, asking that one of the flags that had flown over the Capitol Building in Washington the day of the assasination be sent to the school to go on permanent display. This was not done as often as it is today, and as I remember it, we were told the flag was one of only about 10 that had been used that day.

The last time I visited the old Horace Mann building, the flag was displayed there in the glass case, as it always had been since it arrived at the school. I called the Board of Education when they were choosing "mementos" to salvage from the old school to move to the new school. I wanted to find out what they had decided to save. Not too surprisingly, I was told something to the effect that only architectural details would be saved and that "we can't possibly save something like an old flag."

I have no idea if the flag made the move to the new school or not. It did have some meaning to those of us who helped get it to the school in the first place.

Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2011 9:49 PM
btaylor
7 posts
Apr 01, 2011
10:08 PM
i was at the babysitters house on troy street across from the old BEST store. i was just old enough to remeber it
KennyE11
41 posts
Apr 02, 2011
12:06 AM
I don't know. I was only two years old.
PaulH
2 posts
Apr 16, 2011
9:40 PM
I was in Consumer Economics class at Stebbins H. S. When the announcement was made. The class changed into a lecture about patriotism (I think) by our teacher, Mr. Auspach (sp). I was in band practice whenhe died and our director, Mr. Johnson had us play the National Anthem. I remember that as being hard to play with tears flowing. Most or all of us were in tears.
Pens
2 posts
May 29, 2011
7:50 PM
I was sitting on the floor in the cafeteria at school watching a movie. I was in the 5th grade. I can still remember where in the room I was sitting.
Keugene48
163 posts
Jun 03, 2011
8:44 AM
GYPSO: both of my brothers worked in the House of Magic late 70's to early 80's. My youngest brother Mike lived for a time above the store.
lastofthesimons
1 post
Jun 06, 2011
4:46 PM
I was in the 2nd grade at Our Lady of Mercy school at the corner of odlin avenue and siebenthaler
We were sent home early after the principal announced the shooting of the president.
F16 1UB
21 posts
Jun 09, 2011
7:01 PM
I was in the 8th grade at St Henrys on 741.
unixTechie
5 posts
Jun 19, 2011
4:52 AM
I don't remember where I was when it happened, as I was only 4 1/2 years old at the time. What I do remember was how upset I was the next day when all of the Saturday morning cartoons were preempted for the news coverage.

----------

2010 PT Cruiser"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
Carl Sagan

completelynutz
13 posts
Nov 23, 2011
5:07 AM
I was a freshman coming home from school. Someone on the bus said something about it. I didn't pay much attention because I couldn't figure out how they knew. When I got home I turned on the tv and found out it was true. It was a sad and scary time. I lived on base at Fort Benning in Georgia. Everyone thought that there would be a rain of missles and we would be one of the first ones to be blown up since we lived close to Cuba and we were a military base. At school we had the bomb drill every day for a while. Remember get under your desk and cover your head? We even went to a bomb shelter and had to sit for a few days just for practice.
Sharons
4 posts
Dec 01, 2011
12:04 PM
Isn't it amazing the span of ages on here of us remembering where we were when this tragedy happened? I was at my first job at a bank in downtown Dayton when someone told us the news our president had been shot. We were all shaken up pretty bad, and then to hear he'd died? My mother called to see if I was OK. She and my mother-in-law to be were together addressing envelopes of my coming marriage. That's the day our country changed from the innocence it once was.
plr2
8 posts
Dec 01, 2011
12:20 PM
I was a sophomore at Belmont, lived real close, so I went home for lunch most of the time. saw it on tv while at home, returned to school. my first afternoon class was world history, I started the "rumor" of the shooting and was just about to be escorted to Principal Reston's office for discipline. the Bear, Roy James was my teacher and didn't know for sure how to handle me for such a statement. then the news came over the intercom. I think Coach James was too shocked to apologize and I was quickly forgotten. next class was study hall, I was in Jane Gooch's library when the announcement of early dismissal was given. paul

Last Edited by on Dec 01, 2011 12:25 PM
maxed out
333 posts
Dec 01, 2011
2:36 PM
plr2........When were you at Belmont? My uncle was the basketball coach there and won the state championship in 1964..He is John Ross
plr2
9 posts
Dec 01, 2011
5:57 PM
maxed out, I remember Coach Ross, I went in as a freshman fall of '62 and graduated in '66. as I remember he taught health class, but I didn't have him as my health teacher. I am thinking also maybe he subbed a few times or helped the gym teacher Ed Jones (AKA Physical Ed). the Bear I spoke about earlier was Coach Ross' assistant BB coach, a third again as tall, 20 years older, half again the weight, and lumbered as he walked, heck of a nice fellow though as long as you didn't cross him and insist that you were telling the truth about the President being shot. he didn't care for crap stirring liars, he told me so. paul
pat68
2 posts
Dec 27, 2011
11:38 AM
I was in Mr. Baker's eighth grade history class at Trotwood-Madison Jr. High. Someone came on the intercom and announced that the President had been shot. That was a very unreal day and everyone was in shock. Nothing like that had ever happened before. Then I remember as I was watching the continual TV coverage at home, Oswald getting shot by Ruby. That was a real shocker! I saw him get shot on live TV! That just added to the already unbelievable events that will forever be etched in my mind.
brennan dr.
5 posts
Mar 30, 2012
3:40 PM
I was in Mr. Julerays 6th grade class at Lincoln elementery. We actually had math on television, and the program was interrupted for the announcement. I also remember a teacher there named Miss Bansaff, I had her for Art. Kids I remember from there: Mike Adams, Kenny Durmer, and Kathy Phillips. Lincoln was a real modern school compared to Mcguffy, were I went before. In Gym class we had Trampoline, Art class we worked with clay, pottery ,etc., and math classes on TV.
gris66
79 posts
Mar 31, 2012
6:09 PM
I was in third grade sitting at my desk in the old brick Corpus Christi school building. Sister Ann Stephens made an announcement over the intercom in the mid-afternoon that the President had been shot. My teacher, a nun, led us in prayers. We then bowed our heads and remained silent for what seemed like an eternity for a little kid. Didn't understand what it all meant in the big picture but certainly had a deep sense of the gravity of the situation.

I don't recall how long it was or what we may have done in between but the announcement that the President died came over the intercom a short time later. Even as little kids, we were overwhelmed by the terrible sadness. More classroom prayers were said and then we were dismissed from school.

When I got home, I could see that my mom had been crying and she was scared about what would happen next (I think she thought that the communists might invade the U.S.).

All I know is that the TV was tuned in all weekend to the transpiring news and funeral. I was too young to care about newscasts but I watched it all then.

Last Edited by on Mar 31, 2012 6:10 PM
brennan dr.
8 posts
Apr 08, 2012
4:42 PM
I was in Mr. Julrays 6th. grade class at Lincoln Elementry School. We had part of our Math lessons on cable TV, and it was interruppted by the announcement. Lincoln was an advanced school for it's time. In Gym class we had a trampoline, and in art class we worked with molding clay and pottery.. Miss Banzaff was the art teacher. Some of the kids I remember hearing the announcment with were: Mike Adams, Ken Anderson, Kenny Durmer, and Kathy Phillips.
MorningJoy
3 posts
Aug 09, 2012
8:54 PM
Keugene48 you must be around my age and you must have been either a sophomore or you were in section 2 of Junior or Senior year. I too was a student of Patterson Co-op but that day I was working on my job as mail girl in building 30 at NCR. I and another girl were in our little room with the mail cabinet. Different delivery people where coming in to tell us what was going on. I remember one guy had his emotions so mixed up that he was laughing and feeling bad cause he couldn't stop laughing. He just kept saying, "It's not funny!" Yes it was unbelievable and a terrible tragedy.
Keugene48
222 posts
Aug 10, 2012
5:23 PM
MorningJoy I was a sophmore that year. I was in the Medical Arts division and section 1 the next year I think. I worked at Miami Valley Hospital. When I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up (about 10 years later) I regretted not taking accounting.


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