Kansans recall memories of JFK’s assassination 60 years ago

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The assassination of President John F. Kennedy 60 years ago was a turning point in our history.

It changed the future of Vietnam. It ushered in social change. It changed the way Americans got their news. The world stopped, and America was never the same.

The events of Nov. 22, 1963, are seared into the memories of those who lived it. KSN spoke with a handful of Kansans about that fateful day 60 years ago.

“It was like unbelievable. I mean, not the president. How could that happen?” Asked Janice Turner of Manhattan.

“Badly. A lot of people took it badly,” said Vickie Florence of Topeka.

 John Saffell of Topeka said, “John F Kennedy was the best president I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”

Alfred Perez was a 17-year-old senior at Garden City High School.

“And they came over the intercom that the president had been shot. That’s all they had at the time.”

Turner was an 18-year-old college student.

“I was at K-State, and I was in class, and it was announced, and it was entire shock. Everything shut down,” she recalled.

Florence was a sixth-grader who watched the parade through downtown Dallas on TV.

“There was a whole bunch of people lined up and waving at him. And the next thing you know, there’s one shot that hit him in the head and then another shot that hit him in the throat,” Florence remembers.

Wichita’s Lynn Ikerd was 38 years old in 1963. The 98-year-old veteran remembers reading about Kennedy’s upcoming trip to Dallas in the newspaper.

“I took the newspaper at that time, and it said Kennedy would be in Dallas promoting people to vote for him. So, I thought I’d watch it,” he said.

John Saffell of Topeka, who was living in Ohio at the time, was also watching from home.

“Well, they had the parade on TV. He was in a convertible. Unwise. Then bang, bang, bang! They shot him.”

Before the JFK assassination, most Americans listened to the radio for the news. This was the first time television news, all three networks at the time, covered a breaking news event non-stop.

For four days, Americans were glued to their TV sets.

“It was an unusual event,” said Ikerd. “You don’t normally see somebody shot before your eyes like that.”

“I couldn’t even define how it felt. Because nothing like that had ever happened in our lifetime,” added Turner.

The shooting was just the beginning of the commotion. The scene shifted to Parkland Hospital, where the president was pronounced dead. Ninety-nine minutes after that, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One. Mrs. Kennedy, still wearing her blood-stained dress, stood by Johnson’s side. President Kennedy’s body was in a casket in the back of the plane.

It was truly a terrible day. More killings and chaos would follow in the coming days.

“I tell you what, it affected the girls. I think more mostly because you’ve saw a lot of them cry when that happened,” said Perez. “And the guys, you know, they just really didn’t talk. We just kind of were stunned, really. Because that, you know, that shouldn’t happen.”

“That’s the most shocked I’ve been, I suppose, in my life because he was so special,” said Turner.