Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 61, Number 277, Decatur, Adams County, 23 November 1963 — Page 3

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1963 -—-—— v-———— A r—"~ “

35th President, J. F. Kennedy, Led Full Life

In 46 Years Hero, Legislator, f - _• - ■- Millionaire President

By United Press International John Fitzgerald Kennedy On a bitterly cold and snowy day in January, 1961, when he was inaugurated 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy sounded a call to action that in many ways summed up his own remarkable career. “Let the word go from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,” he said, “that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a cold and bitter peace.” Kennedy was all these, and he bore the torch of world leadership in a society where the old order was changing fast. On that January day, no man had ever flown in space. On that day Negroes in southern cities such as Jackson and Birmingham were not yet demonstrating. On that day the world had not come consciously close to nuclear destruction as it did in the great Cuban crisis of 1962. “A Big Job" “Sure it’s a big job,” Kennedy once said. “But I don’t know anybody who can do it any better than I can. I’m going to be in it for four years. It isn’t going to be so bad. You’ve got time to think—and besides, the pay is good.” He later found out—and conceded—that it was a bigger job than he originally believed. But it is mostly unlikely that he ever , once wavered in the belief that no olie could handle it w” well as he could. To think otherwise would have been a negation of his whole life. . - The presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in the fierce pride of an Irish immigrant family. It was carefully nurtured in the training stages by a multi-millionaire father, and brought to fruition by the man himself through a career in the House and Senate and on j the campaign trials of America. I In a manner typical of hisj family, Kennedy started at the! top in many things. ■ He was a product of Choate, I Harvard and the London School ■ of Economics. He produced his I first book, "Why England ■ Slept,” in 1940 at the age of 23. ■

Grief torn Widow Faces New World

By HELEN THOMAS United Press International WASHINGTON (UPI) — A grief-torn young mother must find the words to tell her two small children that their daddy is dead. Mrs. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, her emotions hidden behind a mask of courage, returned today to the White Hbuse that she left onjy two days ago as the happy First Lady of the land. Waiting for her were her daughter Caroline and her son John Jr. They also will be waiting for their father. President John F. Kennedy, who will not return. John — John, as he was nicknamed by his father, will be 3 years old Monday, the day of Kennedy's funeral. Caroline will be 6 on Wednesday. The two children adored their father and his deep affection for them Captured the nation’s imagination. He showed it all the time, even while carrying out his official duties. Children Asleep The children were asleep at the White House Friday night when their, dajidy- came home for the last tirfie. Mrs. Kerintdy had kept vigil at Bethesda Na- i val Hospital where the President’s body was taken on arrival from Dallas, Tex. With her was Dr. John W. Walse, her obstetrician and close friend who saw her through the tragedy of the death of her infant son, Patrick - Bouvier Kennedy on Aug. 9. Also by her side was Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy who went to the hospital at her request. The attorney general raced up the ramp when the presidential plane arrived and took Mrs

On his second literary try in 1956, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his widely acclaimed “Profiles in Courage.” He also started at the top in politics. There was nothing up-from-the-precincts in his career. He started after the war by winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from his native state of Massachusetts. After six years in the House he ran for the Senate. That year — 1952 — was a bad year for Democrats because of the Eisenhower landslide. But Body To White House At 4:30 A.M. Today WASHINGTON (UPI) — The body of President Kennedy was returned to the White House at 4:30 a.m. EST today in a flagdraped casket borne by servicemen and followed by his sorrowing Widow. A gray Navy ambulance, in which Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy rode, carried the casket from Bethesda Naval Hospital to the White House. It entered the northwest gate and moved to the crepe-lined portico in a slow procession behind an escort of 12 Marines. Six servicemen representing all of the- armed forces acted as pallbearers. The casket was carried past an honor guard of other military men from the portico through the lobby and a hall to the East Room where it was to lie in response through the day. MH. Kennedy, still wearing the pink suit she had on in Dallas, Walked behind the coffin, accompanied by the slain President’s brother, Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy. The casket was placed on a catafalque —a platform —in the center of the East Room. Black crepe was in place along the north wall of the room, largest : in the White House. J A military honor guard await|ed the casket, to remain with lit until the President’s body is I removed Sunday to lie in state lat the Capitol. I Also present were two priests, Ito pray through the night for I Kennedy, the nation’s first Cath■olic president.

Kennedy in his arms. She wept and told him: “Would you come with us.” Since the assassin’s bullet felled her husband, Mrs. Kennedy has remained close by him. In Dallas, she would not leave the door of the emergency room where he had been taken. Cradling his body in her arms, she had stroked his brow as they rushed to the hospital. She remained in het pink blood - spattered suit, stockings and stained shoes, even when she came back to the White House. Wife Moans Softly At the Dallas hospital, she moaned softy, “Whatever are we going to do. Whatever are we going to do?” Mrs. Johnson went to Mrs. Kennedy at the hospital and put her arms around her. In despair Mrs. Johnson uttered: “I wish to God there was something I could do.” Mrs. Kennedy pulled herself together and watched as Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office as the ne wpresident in the presidential plane in Dallas, and then kissed her on Iht.ahebMP I She stood for a moment, star- .. ing at the floor, fighting back the tears. Dallas Police Chief J. E. Currey went up to her took her hand ,and said, “G o d bless you, little lady. Don’t you want to go back and 1i e down?’ "No, thanks,” she said in a firm voice. “I’m fine, really.” Then she went to an alcove of the plane and remained seated near the body. Mrs. Kennedy told close friends that she must “remain Continued on Page 8)

Kennedy defeated Henry Cabot Lodge, a scion of an old New England family whose Brahmin roots were so vastly different from those of the Kennedys. Hero In War Kennedy’s World War II record became a national conversation piece. The saga of PT109, how Kennedy commanded a PT boat in the Solomons that was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, was celebrated in books, a motion picture and countless retelling by magazines, newspapers and television. Kennedy Coupled this illustrious background with a headlong drive for the presidency that has been seldom matched for vigor, tenacity and expense. But despite this, he barely made it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With the largest voter turnout in history, he defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon in 1960 by scarcely 100,000 ballots. Kennedy’s 34,227,096 popular votes gave him an Electoral College edge of 330 to 219 over Nixon, who got 34,108,546 popular votes. Not many hours before Kennedy took office, the family patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, voice deep satisfaction that one of his four sons had made it to the American pinnacle. But the elder Kennedy, one of the wealthiest men of his tinje, knew his older son faced problems as Ho other president has confronted. “He’s got to be good from the very start,” said Joe Kennedy to a friend. “Not only because of his youth, but because the world has reached a point where the American president can make damn few mistakes and get away with it. This means Jack must make a go of it right from the beginning—and it means he’ll need all the suport he can possibly get.” Kennedy entered office on a surge of towering personal popularity. The new President, his strikingly attractive wife, Jacqueline, and their children made one of the most appealing and photogenic families ever to occupy the White House. Their styles, their tastes, their preferences in sports from touch football to waterskiing, swept the nation in a Jack-and-Jackie fad. Motion picture fan magazines dropped cinema sirens for months and emblazoned their covers with alluring pictures of the First Lady in bathing suits, riding costurftgS and T-shirts. Newspaper and feature writers, night club and television comedians, recording stars and composers combined to spread the doings of the Kennedys. A great cult of personality swept the nation. Not since the early days of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal did a president and those around him become such an object of interest to the entire nation. Undisputed personal popularity did not protect Kennedy, however, from the lash of severe criticism .that accompanied some of the efforts of his administration. Nor did it rub off on Congress to the extent Last Minutes Os President's Life DALLAS (UPI) — Here is a chronological breakdown of the final minutes of President Ken- „. nedy’s life some times approximated: 11:35 a.m. CST—Presidential airp’ane lands at Dallas Love Field. M:45 a.m. — President—Kennedy motorcade through downtown Dallas delayed momentarily to allow the President and vice president Lyndon Johnson to shake hands with greeters at airport. 11:50 a.m.—Motorcade starts from airport. 13clfl -p.m atetorrtd'c reaches fringe of downtown area. 12:35 p.m. — Motorcade moves through downtown area. 12:38 p.q. — Motorcade moves from downtown area toward Dallas Trade Mart, where President wae to speak. 12:31 p.m, — President and Texas Gov. John Connally shot. 12:38 p.m. — President rushed to Parkland Hospital. 12:40 p.m.— Staff surgeon and neurosurgeon called. They performed tracheotomy opened throat and applied breathing stimulants. 1 p.m. — President dead. , .

THE DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT. DECATUR, INDIANA

that the lawmakers fell over themselves to get his programs passed. In fact, his New Frontier legislative proposals were often embattled.- His defeats in this area sometimes were impressive, his victories frequently narrow. Great Problems His great problems at the start were foreign policy and the domestic economy. In many ways both were later to be overshadowed by the Negro “revolution” of 1963 which confronted the nation with one of its gravest domestic crises since the Civil War. Overseas, there was the everpresent threat posed by the Soviet Union, the troubles in Southeast Asia, and — over and over again — Cuba. The Kennedys had barely unpacked their bags in 1961 when the image of the bright young American President was tarnished by the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. The plan to land exiles in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro* was conceived in the Eisenhower administration, and executed by the. Kennedy men. The disaster—for which Kennedy accepted full responsibility—lay like a pall on the administration for months. But if April, 1961, was a fiasco, October, 1962, was an unprecedent-« ed triumph. The Cuban missile crisis was a test of all the skill and courage that Kennedy could command. By ordering a blockade but not sinking any ships, by taling softly but carrying the big stick of nuclear retaliation, he forced the Soviet Union to withdraw the missiles it had placed in Cuba and thereby scored one of the greatest Western triumphs of the cold war. Just as the Bay of Pigs was the. low-water mark —of the first years, the Cuban crisis was the high tide. Born Near Boston The man at the troubled U.S. helm through this vast sea of difficulty was born at his family’s Brookline, Mass., home outside Boston May 29, 1917. He had an older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who was killed in World War 11. After John's birth, four girls, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice and Patricia, followed before the third son, Robert F„ Kennedy, was bom* in 1925. He became attorney general in his brother’s administration. After Robert, there, was another girl. Jean.and then Edward F., the last of nine children, born in 1932. The youngster of the family continued the tradition of successful politics by being elected U.S. senator from Massachusetts in 1962 at the age of 30. After the war, Jack Kennedy dabbled *. in newspaper work, then decided to try for a Boston congressional seat being vacated by the incumbent. Only 29. he campaigned hard, talked pocketbook issues and won the nomination over a field of nine

Merriman Smith Sees Tragic Death Scene

EDITOR’S NOTE: MerriSmith, UPI White House reporter since 1941, was on the scene in Dallas Friday when President Kennedy was assassinated. Smith was in the motorcade not far from Kennedy when the shooting took place. He followed the President’s car to the hospital and the death. He was there for » the swearing-in of President Johnson in an Air Force jet and came on back to Washington aboard the aircraft bearing the new President and the body of the slain Kennedy. He was the only news agency reporter on the aircraft. By MERRIMAN SMITH UPI White House Reporter WASHINGTON (UPI)—It was a balmy, sunny noon as we motored through downtown Dallas behind President Kennedy. Tha procession cleared the center of the business district and turned into a handsome highway that wound through what appeared to be a park. I was riding in the so-called White House press “pool’’ car. a telephone company vehicle equipped with a mobile radiotelephone; I was in the front spat ..betwepq. a the telephone company and Malcolm Kildurff, acting White House press secretary for the President’* ’ Texas tour. Three other pool., reporters were wedged into the back seat. Suddenly we heard three loud, almost painfully loud cracks. The first sounded as if it might have been a large firecracker. But the second and third blasts were unmistakable. Gunfire. The President’s car, possibly as much as 150 or 200 yards ahead, seemed to falter briefly. We saw a flurry of activity in the Secret Service follow-up car

normally Democratic district, he easily defeated his Republican opponent in the election. By 1948, Kennedy was begin ning to seek statewide recognition with an eye to running against Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1952. For the campaign against Lodge, he again relied on a personal political organization as he had done when he first ran for the House. In that 1952 campaign, the entire Kennedy family of brothers and sisters and in-laws moved in to hflp with “coffee hours” and other political innovations. They were to be used again later in Kennedy's 1960 campaigns in state presidential primaries., Lodge lost his Senate seat to Kennedy while President Eisenhower carried the state by more than 200.000 votes. Marries Jacqueline Kennedy was married Sept. 12, 1953, to Jacqueline Bouvier, then 23, at a fashionable wedding at Newport, R. I. Like Kennedy. she came from a wealthy New England Catholic family, although she had lived mostly in New York and' Washington. A daughter, Caroline, was born in 1957; a son,’John Jr., in 1960. There were times when Kennedy’s policies seemed as mid-dle-of-the-road as those of his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower. This was highly annoying to the advanced liberals of the party. There were major administration accomplishments legislatively, but not one was gained without extensive effort and 1 close margins. Relation with ’ Congress were not helped when I the Democrats scarcely held " their own in the 1962 mid-term elections. Kennedy, however, derived comfort from the fact that the Democrats did not lose as many seats as usual for the party in power during an offyear election, bift the net results rhowqd the country still narrowly divided between the major parties. During his early years the President devoted most of his domestic effprts to the state of the U.S. economy. His bruising, crushing battle with Big Steel in 1962, when he forced the major producers to rescind price increases, t gave him an “anti-business” label which he -Jizowned but canje to accept as almost inevitable. But many of his later economic proposals won business support. The state of the economy, he felt, was the nation’s No. 1 domestic concern. But this feeling went out the window in the spring of 1963 when the Negro population exploded in demonstrations and sit-ins and marches which became so grave that the President called the movements a threat to public order. To counteract it, he submitted a drastic program of civil rights legislation to Congress and used all his own personal influence to bring whites and Negroes together.

behind the Chief Executive’s bubble-top limousine. Fourth In Line Next in line was the car bearing Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Behind that, another follow-up car bearing agents assigned to the vicepresident’s protection. We were behind that car. Our car stood still for probably only a few seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. One sees history explode before one's eyes and for even the most trained observer, there is a limit to what one can comprehend. I looked ahead at the President’s car but could not see him or his cofnpanion, Gov. John B. Connally of Texas. Both men had been riding on the right side of the bubble-top limousine from Washington. I thought I saw a flash of pink which would have been Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. Everybody in our car began shouting at the driver to pull up closer to the President’s car. But at this moment, we saw the big bubble-top and a' motorcycle escort roar away at high speed. ' • a ' We screamed at our driver, “get going, get going." We caana its escort and set out down the highway, barely able to keep in sight of the President's car and the accompanying Secret Service follow-up car. Then Saw Hospital They Vanished around a curve. When we cleared the same curve we could see where we were heading — Parkland Hospital, • a large brick structure to the left of * the arterial' highway. We skidded around a sharp left turn and spilled out of the pool car as it entered the hospital driveway. I ran to the side of the bub-ble-top.

TEXAS TOUR— The President and Mrs. Kennedy, accompanied by Vice President and Mrs. Johnson, sign autographs in Houston, Texas. TheTfcsitlent is"on“a"western tour.

1 The President was face down on the back seat. Mrs. Kennedy made a cradle of her arms around the President’s head and bent over him as If she were whispering to him. I Gov. Connally was on his back on the floor of the car, his head and shoulders resting in the arms Os his wife, Nellie, who kept shaking her head and shaking with dry sobs. Blood oozed from the front of the governor’s suit. I could not see the President’s wound. But I could see blood spattered around the interior of the rear , seat and a dark stain spreading down the right side of the President’s dark gray suit. Radioed First Report From the telephone car, I had radioed the Dallas bureau of UPI that three shots had been fired at the Kennedy 1 motorcade. Seeing the bloody scene in the rear of the car at the hospital entrance, I knew I had to get to a telephone immediately. Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent in charge of the detail assigncd to Mrs Kennedy, was leaning over into the rear of the car. “How badly was he hit Clint?” "TTsEmT ”77““ . “He’s dead," Hill replied curtly. ’I have no further clear memory of the scene in the driveway. 1 recall a babble of anxious voices, tense voices — “Where in hell are the stretchers . . . get a doctor out here . . . he’s on the way . . . eonw on.easy.liwe." And bom somewhere.' nervous sobbing I raced down a short hospital corridor. The first thing I spotted was a small clerical office, more of a booth than an office. Inside, a bespectacled man stood shuffling what appeared to be hospital forms. At a wicket much like a bank teller’s cage. I spotted a telephone on the shelf. “How do you get outside?" I gasped. “The President has been hurt and this is an emergincy callA’l—"Dial nine," he said, shoving the phone toward me. Diet ted Fast Bulletin It took two tries before I successfully dialed the Dallas UPI number. Quickly I dictated a bulletin saying the President had been seriously, perhaps fatally, injured by an assassin's bullets while driving through the streets of Dallas. Litters bearing the President and the governor rolled by me as I dictated, but my back was to -the hallway and I didn't see them Until they were at the entrance of the emergency room aboutWi or 100 feet away. I knew they had passed, however, from the horrified expression that suddenly spread over the face of the man behind the wicket. V~Outside the "door of the emer- ' mney room, I watched a swift and confused panorama sweep before me. Kilduff of the White House press staff raced up and down the hall. Police ■ other, "clear this area." Two priests hurried in behind a 'Secret Service agent, their narrow purple stoles rolled up tightly in their hands. A police lieutenant ran down the hall with a large carton of blood for the transfusions. A doctor came in and said We was responding to a call for “all neurosurgeons." Given Last Sacrament r The priests came out and said the President had received the last Sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church.. They said he was still alive, but not conscious. Kilduff and Wayne Hawks of the White House staff ran by me,

shouting that Kilduff would make a statement shortly in the socalled nurses room a floor above and at the far end of the hospital. L threw down the phone and sped after them. We, reached the door of the conference room and there were loud cries of “quiet!" Fighting to keep his emotions under control. Kilduff said "President John Fitzgerald Kennedy died at approximately one o’clock." I raced into a nearby office. The telephone switchboard at jjjehospital was hopelessly jammed. I spotted Virginia Payette, wife of UPl's Southwestern Division manager and a veteran reporter in her own right. I told her to try, getting through on pay telephones on the floor above. Frustrated by the inability to get through, the hospital switchboard, I appealed to a nurse. She led me through a maze of corridors and back sairways to another flood and a lone pay booth. I got the ballas office. Virginia had gotten through before me. Selected for Pool I ran back through the hospital to the conference room where Jiggs Fauver of the White House transportation staff grabbed me and said Kilduff wanted a pool of three men immediately to fly back to Washington on Air Force One, the presidential aircraft. "He wants you downstairs,,and he wants you right now," Fauver said. Charles Roberts of Newsweek rtJSkazlne. Sid’ Davis lot"'-West-' inghouse broadcasting and I implored a pojice officer to take us to the airport in his squad car. As we piled out of the car about 200 yards from the presidential aircraft. Kilduff spotted us and motioned for us to hurry. We trotted .tp him and he said the plane could take two ]>obl men to Washington; that Johnson was about to take the oath of office aboard the plane and would take off immediately thereafter. I saw a bank of telephone booths beside the runway and asked if I had time to advise my news service. He said, “but for God’s sake, hurry." Then began another telephone nightmare. The Dallas office rang busy. I tried calling Washington. All circuits were busy. Then I called the New York bureau of UPI and told them about the impending installation of a new president aboard the airplane. Aboard Air Force One on which I had made so many trips as a press association reporter covering President Kennedy, all of the shades of the larger main cabin were drawn and the interior was hot 'anddimly lighted. ■ ■ ’ kilduff propelled *us to the President's suite. Room Was Crowded I wedged inside the door and began counting. There were 27 '•fturyla -is* "-s.ra?sw^t®ont* • Johnson stood in the center with his wife. Lady Bird. U.S. District Judge Sarah T Hughes, 67, a kindly faced woman stood with a ' small black Bible in her hands, waiting to give the oath. Mrs. kennedy, who was composing herself in a small bedroom in the rear of the plane, appeared alone, dressed in the same pink wool suit she had worn In the morning when she appeared so happy shaking hands with airport crowds at the side of her Husband. She was white-faced but dryeyed. Friendly hands stretched

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toward her as she stumbled slightly. Johnson took both “of her hands in his and motioned her to his left side. Lady Bird stood on his right, a fixed halfsmile showing the tension. Johnson nodded to Judge Hughes, an old friend of his family and a Kennedy appointee. “Hold up your right hand and repeat after me," the woman jurist said to Johnson. Outside a jet could be heard droning into a landing. Takes Solemn Oath Judge Hjiighes held out the Bible and Johnson covered it with his large left hand. His right arm went slowly into the air and the jurist began to intone the constitutional oath, “I dp solemnly swear I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. . .” The brief ceremony ended when Johnson in a deep, firm voice, repeated after the judge, “. . .and so help me God." Johnson turned first to his wife, hugged her about the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Then he turned to Kennedy’s widow, put his left arm around her and kissed her cheek. As others in the group—Some Texas Democratic House members. members of the Johnson and Kennedy staffs—moved toward. the new President, he seemed to back away from any expression of felicitation. The two-minute ceremony concluded at 3:38 p’:m., EST and seconds later, the President said firmly, “Now, let’s get airborne." Col. James Swindal. pilot of the plane, a big gleaming silver and blue fan-jet, cut on the starboard engines immediately. “SevOral persons, including Sid Davis of Westinghouse, left the plane at that time. The White House had room for only two pool reporters on the return flight and these posts were filled by Roberts and me, although at the moment we could find no empty seats. Took High Altitude At .3:47 p.m.. EST, the wheels of Air Force One cleared the runway. Swindal roared the big ship up to an unusually high cruising altitude of 41,000 feet where at 625 miles an hour, ground speed, the jet hurtled toward Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington When the President's plane readied operating altitude, Mrs. Kennedy left her bedchamber and walked to the rear compartment of the plane. This was the so-called family living room a private area where she and Kennedy, family and friends had spent many happy airborne hours chatting and dining together. Kennedy’s casket had been placed in this compaetment, carried aboard by a group of Secret Service agents.. , '•> -M* ■ awea*. qtat®' rear lounge and took, a chair beside the coffin. There she remained throughout the flight. Her vigil was shared at times by- four staff members close to the slain Chief Executive—David Powers, his buddy and personal' assistant: Kenneth P. O’Donnell, appointments secretary and key political adviser; Lawrence O’Brien, chief Kennedy liaison man with Congress and Brig. Gen. Godfrey McHugh, Kennedy’s Air Force aide. Makes First Statement As the flight progressed, John(Continued on Page 4)