3 Stories.
Number One:
For starters, my family has lived in Fort Worth, Texas, since 1912 or so. Fort Worth is 32 miles from Dallas.
JFK in fact spent the night of November 21st, 1963 at the Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth. On the morning of the 22nd, the President had breakfast at the Hotel with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, drove in a Motorcade up Main Street in a white Lincoln Continental 4 door convertible, then continued the drive to Carswell Air Force Base on the West Side of Fort Worth, where he took the Presidential plane to Dallas' Love Field Airport.
On the same morning, my sisters and I went to our Pediatric Physician's office for annual checkups. We may have left school to do this, I don't remember. Dr. Pappy Womack was a wonderful man, a fine physician and a devout Catholic (it is important to know this for the development of the story). Pappy had three assistants at his office, a nurse and two other staff members who answered the phone, made appointments, handed out candy to crying children, etc. In my 10-year old mind, Pappy and his staff were one big happy family and I had known them since I could remember.
At the Doctor's office, either the radio or the TV was loudly 'on' at the Receptionist's desk. Pappy's staff hung on every word the news anchors spoke concerning the events of the morning, including the Presidential motorcade through Dallas. The employees, always cheerful, were now ebullient.
Suddenly, the news came over the airwaves that the President and Governor John Connally had been shot. The storyline changed to the President being taken to a local hospital. Finally, it was announced that President Kennedy was dead.
My sisters and I were in shock, as was my grandmother who chauffeured us to the Doctor's office in her big white 1957 Lincoln Premiere hardtop sedan that morning. We all cried.
But if my family was in shock, Pappy's 'office family' was devastated. Tears flowed all round, but Pappy's assistants positively sobbed. I had seen grown-ups cry before (my father died in '62) but this was different, as if the President was their Son or Brother. Their grief was almost uncontrollable.
I tried to understand their feelings. I remembered reading or hearing that JFK was the first Catholic president, as well as the first Catholic to reach a national office in the United States. It occurred to my 10-year old self that perhaps the Doctor's staff members were also Catholics. If so, they had indeed lost their Brother. [I hope that doesn't sound too weird, fellas, it's the way I processed the information 54 years ago in the 4th grade]
Story No. 2:
Remember my Grandmother's white '57 Lincoln Hardtop Sedan? It wound up in the President's Fort Worth Motorcade! Here are some pics of the Motorcade and the white convertible the President rode in (but not my Granny's car):
http://www.jfktribute.com/multimedia/photos/
Early in the morning of the 22nd, President Kennedy was still in the the Hotel in Fort Worth. At breakfast, JFK & Co. listened to a local high school band play Hail to the Chief (Ruffles and Flourishes) when he entered the room and the Yellow Rose of Texas when Jackie entered the room a short time later. President Kennedy then left for Carswell AFB in a Presidential Motorcade, riding in a white Convertible.
At The Exact Same Time, my Grandma, driving the Mighty Behemoth of a Lincoln, was taking my Grandfather to his law office in downtown Fort Worth, a few blocks from Kennedy's Hotel.
She told that she was driving the usual route when suddenly Police officers were in front of her car, giving her directions to turn. She said that she must have turned the wrong way because she wound up driving either through or alongside the motorcade!
As she described it to me later,
"We were driving along down-town. The police told me to turn. I did and suddenly there was this motorcade! I looked out the window and I was right next to the President. He was in an open car with no protection and I could have touched his arm. I thought, my God, somebody could shoot him!"
Story No. 3
I've been playing in the same band with my drummer Mike for around 25 years. He's been involved in the local music scene since the '50s. On the morning of November 22nd, Mike, was a senior in the high school band that played for President and Mrs. Kennedy's breakfast. He told me that the President graciously walked up to thank them for their performance at the end of breakfast, but that 'he lost track of what JFK was saying as soon as the 'beautiful Jackie' showed up next to him!'
That's it. gil'