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Community members share their JFK memories

The Havre Daily News asked people to submit their memories of what happened on Nov. 22, 1963, in their lives. Here is a sampling of their responses.

As most Americans I can remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news — I had my first job as an R.N. at Liberty County Hospital in Chester — we were scrubbed into surgery when the lab tech stepped in and told us the news. After the surgery the nursing staff decided to inform the patients individually in case the news caused severe problems to the very ill patients

It was my first brush with what I called hatred when the first person I told in the Republican community told me it was good news.

I was so devastated by the news and almost emotionally devastated by the reaction of the patient.

After work I had to have a long talk with my dad about how could anyone be so unpatriotic.

The streets were almost evacuated in the afternoon, and there wasn't anything going on that afternoon in Chester.

There were rural areas that still didn't have great TV, and it was the first time that people watched everything as it happened. I wasn't old enough to vote for JFK but he was certainly my first grown-up president and we had such high hopes for what he could do.

— Karen Sloan, Havre

I lived in Havre at the time! Very sad day!

— Bernadine Laursen of Missoula, formerly of Havre

When I heard that President Kennedy was shot, I was doing some dirt work and landscaping in Lewistown.

My boss came over and told me, and we went over to the Eagles Club and watched the proceedings on television.

Three weeks later I enlisted in the Air Force with the intent on staying for just four years, but instead I spent 20 1/2 years, retiring on June 30, 1984.

The presidential plane that Kennedy flew on his trip to Dallas is now at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. My son and I took a walk through it about three years ago.

— Fran Flesch, Great Falls

My dad was working for the Havre Daily News He came running in the house at lunch time and immediately turned on the TV so we could watch.

— Hugh Graham, Havre

Our family was made up of staunch Kennedy supporters and admirers, we felt the wonderment of Camelot, and then it was all over, taken away from us, on that fateful day.

We were stunned and looked to and felt the strength of our First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. She, with her class, her charisma and wisdom, helped to get us through, as she bravely, with an unbelievable Herculean strength, helped us to mourn her husband, our leader.

I was living in Pittsburgh, Pa., at the time, a high school junior, muddling through another day in bookkeeping class and looking forward to the weekend. Our teacher was passive, not really emotional and his class was by the book of curriculum. However, that day of days truly changed us all.

Life was simpler back then, truly the "happy days". Many of us had never heard the word, "assassination", until that day ... that Friday, that Nov. 22, 1963.

Over the public address system came the words that stunned all of us and would forever touch our souls ... "President Kennedy has been shot, please pray for our President," stated our principal, Mr. Good, with tears in his words.

Our bookkeeping instructor was pensive, and in tears, and we, as a class, were stunned.

Soon word came, yet again, over the public address system...

"President Kennedy has died. Classes are dismissed."

The silence was profound on the school buses taking us home.

Fifty years ago ... and still surreal...

— Carolaine Peticca Schafer, Havre

I had been busy working in his insurance office, that fateful day, then went to First National Bank (now US Bank), in Havre, to do some banking and the teller told me that President Kennedy had been shot while visiting Dallas, Texas.

I closed up shop, went home, and joined the countless across the country, throughout the world, glued to their television sets.

— Richard Schafer, Havre

I was just getting out of a law school class, Tort, in fact, at the University of Utah. A girl was sitting on the steps of the building. She was crying. I asked her what was wrong, and just then a guy came out yelling "Kennedy has been shot." ... That's just something you can't forget.

— Bill Thackeray, Havre

I was at St. Anthony's School in Missoula. Right after lunch, the nuns came in and told us. We didn't know much about it. I was in third grade, maybe. When I got home, my folks rented a television so we could watch it.

— Keith Doll, Havre

 
 

Reader Comments(6)

2smart4u writes:

YOU are 'Not2Smart'! I don't care what he did in his TEENS! I care about what he did as an ADULT! I have no fewer than 20 books about this subject and have READ and UNDERSTOOD them all! Oswald has been quoted as saying 'the best religion is COMMUNISM'. When he defected, he declared to the Soviet gov't he was a COMMUNIST. What is your problem with FACTS, and for that matter the rest of this town? You just proved how smart you aren't, and as for rude, I call it the TRUTH and being HONEST! FACTS!

not2smart writes:

Oswald joined the Young people's socialist League when he was in his teens. He denied being a communist and proclaimed to all that would listen that he was a Marxist. Perhaps you should Google Oswald yourself before you post your always rude and obnoxious blather? READ A BOOK --- YOU JUST MAY LEARN SOMETHING!

2smart4u writes:

@ Sad: Only a complete fool thinks that there will be an absence of partisanship with non-partisan races. There is no such thing as non-partisan, but I'm sure you're too dumb to realize that, considering you don't know the difference between a Communist and a Socialist. All it does is allow candidates to hide their biases.

2smart4u writes:

@ What: Not everyone was sad when Kennedy was shot. I've spoken with several people who said others expressed their joy that *that Commie Kennedy* was dead, and they were right here in lily white, pure, perfect Havre, MT! @ Sad: Oswald was a self-proclaimed COMMUNIST, there is a difference. Both of you need to go do some meaningful research instead of posting useless drivel and spewing partisan knee-jerk denials. You might learn that those around you are not the Christians they claim to be!

Sad writes:

Most of us didn't even know what the word assasination mean't as we had never heard of such a thing before. Oswald was a Marxist and self proclaimed socialist. Ironically he believed in much of the same principles as the modern day democrat which makes me laugh out loud at byebye calling Karen out on this one I for one am looking forward to the new non-partisan local raceswhich hopefully end a lot of these political comments

What writes:

Questionable story Karen Sloan. Does everything have to be about partisan politics with you?

 
 
 
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