Havre recalls Kennedy death

Toni Hagener recalls hearing on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.

Like many Havreites on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, she rushed to the television to see what was unfolding.

Her immediate concern was for the children. Her own young children would soon be on their lunch hour.

"How do you explain this to children," she thought. "I felt sorry for the teachers."

Havre, like the rest of the nation, stopped in its tracks when it heard of the assassination.

Special prayer services were held.

Schools were closed. Classes at Northern Montana College were canceled.

Big story in the Havre Daily News

The Havre Daily News staff scrambled to get news of the assassination in that afternoon's paper.

"President Kennedy Assassinated" screamed the two-deck headline on Page A1.

A picture of the deceased president and newly sworn-in President Lyndon Johnson appeared on the page.

Mourning begins

Montana Gov. Tim Babcock declared a 30-day mourning period.

At all churches, the assassination was the topic of the Sunday sermon.

Students at St. Jude Thaddeus School offered a spiritual bouquet for the deceased president.

"We have evidence that hate and anything connected with hate likewise kills," said the Rev. John J. O'Hara, a Jesuit and St. Jude Thaddeus Church pastor.

Special services held in Havre

Friday night, the Havre Ministerial Association conducted a service at VanOrsdel United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Paul J. Reeder, pastor of First Baptist Church presiding.

On Monday, the community gathered at 11:28:30 a.m. at the Hill County Courthouse - three days exactly after the shots were fired.

The crowd sang "Be Still, My Soul."

Scriptures were read.

The firing squad of Troop E of the Montana Army National Guard, under the direction of Master Sgt. James Pasma, fired a three-shot volley for the president.

Taps was played.

The Havre High School Band performed under the direction of Clifford Carlson.

People went home to watch the funeral Mass and procession on TV.

Tributes poured in from around Montana and the world.

"A piece of each of us died at that moment," said Sen. Mike Mansfield," D-Mont., the Senate's majority leader. "He gave himself to us. He gave us a good heart from which the laughter came."

"President Kennedy has left us one message which tells us to stay young, keep thinking, keep moving and keep alert to opportunities," read a Havre Daily News editorial initialed by editor Herbert C. Watts.

JFK had just been in Montana

The assassination hit Montanans especially hard. The president had been in Billings and Great Falls just two months earlier - Sept. 26.

Huge crowds gathered in Great Falls when the president, accompanied by Sens. Mansfield and Lee Metcalf and Interior Secretary Stuart Udall, arrived. U.S. Rep, Arnold Olsen, D-Mont., had stayed in Washington to vote for Kennedy's tax plan that needed every vote it could get.

Local dignitaries gathered to show their support, and Blackfeet official Earl Old Person was on hand in full Native attire.

The story of Kennedy's visits to Montana are detailed in a book "Westward I Go Free - J.F.K. in Montana."

The book is on display at the H. Earl Clack Museum as part of a display in the Kennedy assassination.

One of the highlights of the Great Falls visit was a trip to Mansfield's parents home.

It was not a usual day for the Mansfields. Secret Service agents came to their home 48 hours earlier to set up emergency phone lines so the president could immediately communicate with anyone while he was there.

In front of their home, 4,000 people stood cheering, many asking for the president's autograph.

The Mansfields the night before had pulled their shades, turned out the lights and took the phone off the hook.

But they were delighted when the president arrived.

Mike Mansfield had served with Kennedy in the House and the Senate, though he alone among Montana Democrats had supported Lyndon Johnson for president over Kennedy.

Kennedy chatted with the Mansfields about what parts of Ireland they came from - both Mansfields immigrated to the United States at an early age.

"I think your son is doing a pretty good job," he told the elder Mansfields.

"I think both of you are doing a good job. God bless you," the elder Mansfield said.

Never the same

Montanans agreed that Kennedy's death would change the course of history.

Nothing, Gov. Babcock said, would ever be the same.

Older people still today judge their lives as pre-assassination and post-assasination.

But some things remained the same.

The week of the Kennedy murder, three stories dominated the news:

• North Dakota state officials began an all-out push for a four-lane highway going through the northern part of their state and the Hi-Line of Montana.

• A Burlington Northern train had derailed just outside of Chester.

• The National Weather Service predicted bad weather for the Hi-Line for the coming weekend.