To live in Dallas is to own a small piece of the trauma of JFK’s assassination, writes Kael Alford. The tragedy came to define Dallas to the outside world but failed to describe residents’ own personal experiences. As the city prepares for the 50th anniversary of that fateful day, those memories are resurfacing.
Click here to read the full piece by Kael Alford.
Phyllis Hall is a registered nurse who was at Parkland Hospital in Dallas during the treatment of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Shortly before the assassination, she assisted with the maternity care of Marina Oswald, the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald who shot the president. Hall is pictured outside the entrance of Parkland Hospital. She said she always identified with Jackie Kennedy, who wouldn’t leave her husband’s until he was pronounced dead. She says Jackie showed little emotion in the trauma room, she simply stared straight ahead, dazed as she did in the photos from Johnson’s swearing in.
Visitors on this tour from Delaware point toward the view of the sixth floor window of the book depository, now mostly blocked by trees.
Tourists photograph the locations where the president was hit by the assassin's bullets.
James Tague was a bystander near the triple underpass (in background) at Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was slightly wounded on the cheek by a bullet fragment or chip of concrete during the shooting. He later wrote a book called "Truth Witheld: A Survivor's Story (2003) and another book called "LBJ and the Kennedy Killing" (2013). He believes that the facts of the Kennedy killing made public by the U.S. government are inaccurate.
Visitors come to a fence overlooking Elm street to pay a personal tribute and write messages to Kennedy.
Pierce Allman is a journalist for WFAA television in Dallas, Texas who was standing across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, where Oswald positioned himself for the assassination of President Kennedy. Allman is believed to have encountered Oswald as he left the building after the shooting and was one of the first journalists to broadcast the story of the assassination from a phone inside the Book Depository. He is pictured here outside of the history Book Depository building, now the Dallas County Administration building.
Visitors come to the spot, marked by two "X"'s in the road on Elm street and often photograph each other in the street.
Visitors on this tour from Delaware point toward the view of the sixth floor window of the book depository, now mostly blocked by trees.
Visitors come to a fence overlooking Elm street to pay a personal tribute and write messages to Kennedy.