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I attended Flato Elementary in Kingsville, Texas. I was part of the playground patrol and safety patrol because I was in fifth grade. One watched the playground, the other helped kids cross the street. I was on playground patrol when a second grader approached me close to lunch time and said, "Sir, someone killed the President!" I immediately replied, "That's not funny! Go back and play!" Then the bell rang and we all had to go back to our classrooms for the official announcement, that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas, of all places. The second-grader was not kidding. I remember that death was followed by the death of one of my favorite aunts, Tia Nina, my grandmother's only sister, had died of a heart attack, I still believe, as a result of that sad day and the sad days that followed. My whole family was glued to the television for the televised drama that followed. The chaos in Dallas, the swearing in of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the entire funeral. I saw brave Jackie cope without public hysterical crying as I had seen in the few funerals I had attended. I saw John John salute his dad's procession, and little Caroline not really aware it seemed, of all that had happened. Little kids were no longer little kids for that week and the weeks that followed. Adults wondered and worried about what could be next.
We had two television stations I believe in 1963 in Kingsville. Actually, they were Corpus Christi stations, and our favorite was CBS, Channel 10, and I got to know all about Walter Cronkite from his role in broadcasting CBS News' accounts of the death and funeral of president Kennedy. I remember wondering why he took off his glasses and looked away from the camera and towards the clock, and what clearing his throat was all about. Years later I would know it was the first time a national news anchor had come close to crying on air.
May God comfort our nation as we remember such a sad day in our history, and may we let God's love comfort and unite us in the divided country we have become. "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
