A Bonney Family Story

Hello, readers! I hope you are having a wonderful week so far. My post today is an offering of the historical variety. Yesterday marked the 47th year since John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. My father had the unusual experience of meeting him the morning of November 22, 1963, so I decided he should have the chance to share his story.

Now, you have to know. Dad is a lawyer and science enthusiast. I have never seem him read a novel--ever. But his straightforward, technical writing has a charm in this account, and reveals a certain something about his personality, so I have left his words verbatim. Enjoy!

ABB - At Your Request:

This is a true tale of the day that JFK was assassinated - November 22, 1963, and what I did that day.

I was a junior at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and was taking an advanced course in constitutional law. The class was small - only about ten (10) students. Dr. Kenneth Street was the Professor.

Dr. Street learned that President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, would be in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and would be spending the night of November 21, 1963, at a luxury hotel in Fort Worth, before coming to Dallas around noontime. There was a breakfast meeting in the Hotel Ballroom for several hundred supports of JFK, and Dr. Street arranged a table at the breakfast for our constitutional law class.

The entire class attended, and we had a table ( I remember twelve [12] people at our table), which was one of approximately twenty (20) tables in the ballroom. JFK arrived and walked near our table on his way to the head table. Jackie was not with him.

JFK addressed the gathering of supporters, and my memory is that he spoke of his vision for a better America. I remember distinctly that he joked about Jackie not coming to the breakfast because she could not find her shoes. There had been press about Jackie’s large shoe closet at the White House. I remember how vibrant and alive he appeared, the President of the United States.

The President left around 9:00 a.m., and we drove back to Sherman, which was approximately seventy (70) miles northeast of Fort Worth. I remember that I had an exam that afternoon around 1:00 p.m. in a different class - I think English literature. As I was taking the exam, I noticed an unusual amount of loud yelling and commotion on the campus outside the classroom building, and wondered what was going on out there.

I finished taking the exam around 2:00 p.m., and as I handed in my exam paper to the Professor, she handed me a slip of paper that read: “Please open and read after you have left the exam room.” Curious, I rushed outside and opened the note and read the words: “President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas this afternoon at approximately 1:30 p.m. by an unknown assassin.”

I remember thinking “This is not possible. I just saw the man several hours ago, vibrant and full of life.” I rushed to my dorm and found most of the students already gathered around the television in the rec room, glued to the beginning network coverage of the assassination.

The fact that I had just seen the man just hours before he was shot and killed made the whole event very poignant and real to me, and even more horrible than it would have been otherwise.

I am the proud father of Anna Beth, and write this at her request for her blog.

Sam Bonney