Fifty Years Later, West Virginians Remember JFK's Death

Fifty years ago Friday, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The killing shocked the nation and world and, to this day, people still talk about it. Many West Virginians are remembering where they were the day the President was killed.

The West Virginians who are remembering that day include Mountain Stage host Larry Groce, who was living near Dallas at the time.

LarryGroce.mp3

Larry Groce shares his JFK memory.

Others who share their memories include: Maura Brackett, who worked in the White House, and a Princeton man who served as a local campaign manager for Kennedy during the 1960 campaign.

This is audio collected from West Virginia television stations following the death of President Kennedy, exclusive to this digital version of our story:

REPORTER.mp3

Reporters at the Capitol.

WTRF,_PEOPLE_ON_THE_STREET_REACT_TO_JFK'S_DEATH.mp3

WTRF collected man on the street interviews following the death of JFK.

COMMENTARY_ON_JFK'S_DEATH.mp3

Commentary about the death of JFK.

Hear from people who crossed paths with JFK in this radio special

Listen to We Knew JFK: Unheard Stories from the Kennedy Archives on Friday, Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio

Hosted by Robert MacNeil, We Knew JFK is a radio documentary in oral history form, built around the recorded recollections of people who knew Jack Kennedy personally.

Project History:We Knew JFK came into being when independent producer Steve Atlas stumbled, quite by chance, across an extraordinary collection of audio recordings deep in the stacks of the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The recordings were one-on-one interviews, done half a century ago, with people who had known JFK personally. Supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, these oral histories were conceived by the family of the late President Kennedy shortly after his death, as a different kind of memorial — one that would be constructed not from marble but from personal recollections.

Over time, the collection far outstripped the family’s initial expectations. Today it numbers over 1200 interviews, and constitutes perhaps the most extensive oral history collection ever amassed on a single individual.

Voices: As in Studs Terkel’s work, the characters who tell the JFK story are a diverse and vivid lot. From the blue-collar Boston Irish and Italians who helped a young unknown first get elected to Congress, to the venerable figures of the Thousand Days, they are strange bedfellows in all but one crucial respect — somewhere along the way, they crossed paths with Jack Kennedy, and came away with indelible memories of what was, in nearly every instance, the most important experience of their lives.

Recorded in most cases within a few years or even months of the president’s death, the interviews evoke the Kennedy era with uncanny immediacy. Further, they are unexpectedly, sometimes startlingly, candid – to discourage self-censoring, interviewees were offered the option of sealing their conversations from public view for stipulated periods of time, in some instances for their lifetimes or longer. As many participants accepted the offer, much of the material remained classified for decades. Today, with a few exceptions, the embargos have expired — many of them only recently — making this trove of long buried material available to the public for the first time.

For photos of the storytellers and more information, visit the We Knew JFK website.

JFK: Explore a Cultural Icon on WV PBS

Forever enshrined in myth by an assassin’s bullet, Kennedy’s presidency long defied objective appraisal. Recent assessments have revealed an administration long on promise and vigor, and somewhat lacking in tangible accomplishment.

JFK: American Experience begins Tuesday, November 11 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia PBS, and concludes on November 12.

Kennedy’s proposals for a tax cut and civil rights legislation promised significant gains in the months before his assassination. While maturation, as evidenced in the handling of the Cuban missile crisis, was apparent, the potential legacy of the New Frontier will forever be left to speculation.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365081399/

President Kennedy and his daughter Caroline on a yacht during a weekend in Hyannis Port.

This new portrait offers a fresh assessment of the man, his accomplishments and his unfulfilled promise. Produced and directed by Susan Bellows, JFK features interviews with Kennedy family members and historians including Robert Dallek, Robert Caro, and Evan Thomas. Beginning with Kennedy’s childhood years as the privileged but sickly second son of one of the wealthiest men in America, the film explores his early political career as a lackluster congressman, his successful run for the U.S. Senate, and the game-changing presidential campaign that made him the youngest elected president in U.S. history.

Fifty years later, NOVA investigates the assassination of John F. Kennedy

NOVA: Cold Case JFK premieres Wednesday, November 13 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia PBS

In Cold Case JFK, NOVA follows a unique group of experts trying to unravel the lingering mysteries of the Kennedy assassination. What should have been a homicide investigator’s best-case scenario—a crime that occurred in broad daylight in front of hundreds of witnesses—instead became a forensics nightmare in a case plagued by a mishandled crime scene, a controversial autopsy, and a prime suspect gunned down while in police custody.

NOVA combines cutting edge technology and contemporary scientific techniques with archival footage and expert interviews to recreate the crime and the Warren Commission’s investigation–examining the shooting, the assassination scene, the medical information and wounds, and the evidence found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

The film features several exclusive elements: For the first time since the original investigation by the FBI laboratory, forensic scientists trained and experienced in both firearms identification and shooting scene reconstruction review and evaluate the ballistics evidence in the JFK assassination. These experts apply new technology, not available until recently, to this historic crime.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365105347/

Renowned JFK assassination expert and professor John McAdams weighs in on the findings of the original Warren Commission, the deficiencies of the medical and autopsy evidence, and the lack of understanding on the part of the Kennedy camp on the need for a forensic autopsy at the time.

Veteran investigator Josiah Thompson also studies the most famous “eye witness” account of that day: the 8mm Zapruder film—perhaps the best known “home movie” in history–which captures the shooting and wounds sustained by both the president and the Texas governor as their motorcade rides through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a defining moment in our nation’s history and one that continues to perplex us. It was also the murder of a man. A half-century later, the shooting remains controversial to a majority of the public that doubts the Warren Commission findings that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. In Cold Case JFK, NOVA shows viewers the importance of re-examining the evidence of prior eras using the technology and tools of today to try to unlock the secrets of the past and yield important new insights.

JFK: One PM Central Standard Time recounts Walter Cronkite's iconic news coverage

This documentary is part of a series of PBS primetime special programs airing November 11-13 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the President’s death

JFK: One PM Central Standard Time, a Secrets of the Dead special presentation, airs Wednesday, November 13 at 10 p.m. on West Virginia PBS.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365090806/

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35^th President of the United States serving from January 20, 1961 until his assassination on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Five decades later, as we mark the 50^th anniversary of his death, JFK: One PM Central Standard Time tells the story of two men, one the President of the United States John F. Kennedy – shot in Dallas and rushed to Parkland hospital, his fate unknown – and the other respected CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite, knowing he had to get the story right amid myriad uncertainties that tragic day.

Narrated by George Clooney and featuring interviews with President Bill Clinton and Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor, NBC Nightly News and Rock Center with Brian Williams, the special recounts the riveting story of the reporting from Dallas and the New York CBS Newsroom from the moment President Kennedy was shot until Cronkite’s emotional pronouncement of his death at 1 p.m. CST.

The program features moving memories from the producers, writers and reporters who were there on the day, including Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Marvin Kalb and Marianne Means.