Where were you when you found out that JFK had been assassinated? How did it affect you?
I was in 11th grade. It was a school day, a Friday afternoon, November 22, 1963, and I was in my American History class when the announcement was made that the President had been shot and killed. It was a terrible shock.
All that weekend, we were glued to the television set, following every step of what happened (or what they told us). On Sunday morning Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, at Dallas police headquarters. The shooting was on LIVE television.
President Kennedy’s funeral was on Monday, November 25, 1963. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. The entire country watched. We were united in shock; politics didn’t matter – he was our President.
Stella's Place 
Twelfth grade trig class in the morning; our teacher told us he had been shot, but his death hadn’t been reported yet. A very sobering moment, and surreal – that was history…Lincoln…not in modern times?!
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I was in my first year at California Lutheran Bible School in Los Angeles, on South Burlington Avenue…I heard about it from classmates, in between classes as I was walking through the breezeway.
Four of us girls shared a small apartment. No one had television sets. So for the next week, I went down to the corner store and bought the twice-a-day Los Angeles Herald which was full of long updates and photos.
The feeling was similar to the days following 9-11for both individuals and the nation. Disconnected. Dis-oriented. Wondering what was going to happen next. Jackie Kennedy’s silenty projected anger and the disgusting public persona of LBJ are both unforgettable memories for me.
My oldest brother was a crew member on the U-2 flights over Cuba that had taken place during the 24-36 months just preceding Kennedy’s assassination. I had as intentional an understanding as a 19 year old could have of national events. Kennedy’s death just made me real quiet as I knew we could not possibly understand the “what next?” that loomed. JFK had already been sending “advisers” to Vietnam for a couple of years at the time of his death.
It was a deadly and uncertain time on all sides. His assassination is not a stand-alone event for me.
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I was in typing class and someone rushed in and said the President had been shot. We all got quiet and they turned the TV on. It was just about time to change classes and we all went to the next class stunned. They had the TV on in there, too. I just remember that at some point we were told that he had died. Everyone, students and teachers, were all crying. It just seemed impossible.
I knew nothing at all about politics. But, even then I disliked Johnson and I always felt that he knew what was going to happen and didn’t stop it. And, I thought how awful it was that Jacky had to fly back in a plane with him. I also remember that feeling of doom.
And, who killed Kennedy and why Oswald was shot was a mystery to me. And, didn’t Ruby get killed in prison?
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‘During the murder trial, Ruby claimed that he was suffering from psychomotor epilepsy, also called temporal lobe epilepsy because of where it is located in the brain. Defense attorney Melvin Belli stated that this condition caused Ruby to black out and subconsciously shoot Oswald. Ruby was found guilty of first-degree murder of Oswald and sentenced to death by electric chair. In 1966, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the decision. Later in 1967, Ruby died of lung cancer.’
Interesting article:
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/assassinations/jack-ruby/
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Thanks. That was interesting to know.
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9th grade algebra class. Overhead announcement of the shooting. Continuously played the news then, until he died and school was let out for the weekend.
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