"Minnesota's Freeman family watched historic tragedy unfold from up close"

[dflprincess]

Interesting article with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and his mother, Jane. For the younger set, his dad, Orville had been governor of Minnesota (1955-1961) and was JFK's Secretary of Agriculture. (Note, the artice said he served 3 terms as governor, way back then the governor's term was only 2 years)

[div class = "excerpt"]
http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/232604241.html

On Nov. 22, 1963, more than half of John F. Kennedy’s Cabinet was on board a Boeing 707 over the Pacific Ocean when a news bulletin reported that three shots had been fired at the president’s motorcade in Dallas. Among those on the plane, headed to Japan on a goodwill trip, was U.S. Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman, who had served three terms as Minnesota governor, and his wife, Jane.

Secretary of State Dean Rusk, the delegation’s highest-ranking diplomat, soon announced the awful news: “Ladies and gentleman, it is official. We have had official word — the president has died. God save our nation.”

“Everybody was emotional, most of us shed tears,” said Jane Freeman, now 92, during a recent interview in her apartment at Walker Place in Minneapolis, as her son, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, sat nearby. “Most of us tried to gulp it down, and say a lot of prayers, and talk quietly to each other.”

Fifty years later, all of Kennedy’s original Cabinet members are gone, and Jane Freeman and Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, are the only surviving spouses. Orville Freeman died in 2003 at 84....


Much more at link

[iemitsu]

1. A nice narrative remembering the day that Kennedy was shot.

where were you?

[dflprincess]

2. In my 5th grade class

The principal came over the PA and announced, very abruptly, that President Kennedy was dead and that he had been assassinated. Even to a ten year old it was clear from her voice that she had to get it out fast before she started crying.

My teacher turned deathly pale and just flopped into her chair - a hard wooden one, I'm surprised she didn't hurt herself.

We were living near Buffalo, NY then ("just up the transit from Lockport&quot and the school day was nearly over so we were just kept there until the normal release time.

How about you?

[iemitsu]

4. I was in a third grade classroom on the west coast.

We were released early and when I got home my dad was there. He was never home during the daytime.
My parents had hosted an event for Kennedy, when he was on the campaign trail, and my dad was especially devastated by the assassination.

[progree]

3. I was living in Venezuela at the time

My father, from California, worked for Gulf Oil Co. at the time and we lived in Venezuela in the boonies. Some neighbors came over and said Kennedy has been shot, and can you turn on the radio? We had a short wave radio -- that was the "World Wide Web" at the time, for us and our community, no other way to access any U.S. broadcast media. And we were one of the very few in the community with short wave radio.

I was 11 years old at the time. I went to tell my sister, who was practicing on the piano. I said "President Kennedy has been shot". She reacted like I was pulling her leg. Befuddled and about to cry, I just turned around and walked out quickly. Anyway, from that unusual reaction, she no doubt figured out I wasn't kidding and soon followed me out to where the radio was.

As for how the neighbors heard about it to begin with, I guess they got a phone call or maybe heard it in Spanish on the local radio station (none of us had T.V. at the time -- no T.V. stations way out where we were).

[iemitsu]

5. I remember the pre-tv days.

I lived in southeast Alaska and there was one hour of television per week. The only show available was Johnny Carson and it was a week old by the time it arrived in Ketchikan.
We did not have a television set, but some neighbors did.