Oral+History


 * The** **Assassination of JFK**

Diane Wenzel (Emily's Grandma) : “I was working at Milwaukee County General Hospital and I was eating lunch in the cafeteria. It was a Friday and around 12:00 am. Then all of a sudden, a medical student told us the news that John F. Kennedy had been shot.”
 * 1. Can you describe yourself and your status in life in 1963?**

Diane Wenzel (Emily's Grandma) : “Everyone was in shock. Nobody did anything that weekend because they were so shocked. Everyone was watching it on TV. I remember the news coverage thinking that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who shot Kennedy. But then soon after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. So it was a shame that nobody could ask Oswald any questions about why he did any part of this.”
 * Judge Myron and Myra Gordon:** (Myron)"I was a Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge in 1963. I was very involved with the Civil Rights Movement. I had cases that had to do with the Milwaukee Civil Rights Movement and also the burning of the draft papers. I actually met JFK once. I was at a political conference that was to get people excited for him, while he was running for the presidency. I was standing and talking with a group of men when out of nowhere John F. Kennedy walks in and started talking to us. Then I had lunch with Jackie Kennedy. She was very charming."
 * 2. What do you remember about the aftermath of the assassination?**

Diane Wenzel (Emily's Grandma) : “It was very popular on the black and white TV. It was also big on the radio and in the newspaper with a big headline, JFK Assassination. Everyone watched TV all weekend and nobody did anything. The funeral for JFK was also on TV the following week. I remember the funeral with all of Kennedy’s kids. His daughter, Caroline, was there and she is still living now. His son, John, died in a plane crash. And his wife has also passed away. I also remember watching people move all of JFK’s furniture out of the white house and he always sat in this one rocking chair because he had a bad back. It was very sad to see everything go.”
 * 3. How did the media cover this major event?**


 * Judge Myron and Myra Gordon**: "The media never stopped covering it. They caught Lee Harvery Oswald and Jack Ruby killed him. There was one tragedy after another with the Kennedy family. There were four Kennedy sons, the eldest of which was my(Myron's) classmate at Harvard, it was Joseph, and he was the one who the family had pegged as going to go far in politics. He went off to World War Two and was killed. Then there was JFK. Then there was Robert, who was also assassinated. So three of the four sons were dead. The only one left today is Ted Kennedy. JFK's assasination was the most important thing that ever happened. They couldnt figure out if it was a conspiracy, or how many men were involved. It was just a saga that went on and on and on."

Judge Myron and Myra Gordon: "This was by far the most shocking and definently the most shocking political episode that happened in our lifetime. Then there was the outbreak of the WW2 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor where I (Myron) was serving at the time in a legal office."
 * 4. Was this the first time something tragic like this had happened in your lifetime?**


 * 5. How good of a job did Lyndon B. Johnson do in following in JFK's footsteps?**

Judge Myron and Myra Gordon: "I think Lyndon B. Johnson was pretty much on the same wavelength as JFK. I do not remember specifically what his policies were, but I know he was basically a good president."

Diane Wenzel (Emily's Grandma) : “Civil Rights was beginning and there were many protesters. I remember watching Martin Luther King doing lots of speeches and we watched them on TV. Most of this happened down south and we were not aware of much except for what you read in the newspaper. There was also a riot in 1966 in Milwaukee."
 * 6. How was America like politically before and after the assasination? What was going on at that time in the Civil Rights movement?**

Judge Myron and Myra Gordon: "There was a big push for equality everywhere, regardless of race or religion."


 * 7. Did you feel as if JFK's** **assasination was the end of an era? Why or why not?**

Judge Myron and Gordon: "I didnt feel that way, because there was so much hope generally, even though Kennedy was assasinated, it didnt mean that everything he stood for was ending also. It was a very sad event, but I knew there was still good left in the world. After all of the hysteria, when I looked back, I didn't see it as much of an end to an era, but rather as a new beginning, and we had hope."

Diane Wenzel (Emily's Grandma) : “It was terrible and everyone was devastated. I remember everybody was crying all the time. Everyone was worried because the man who shot Kennedy was also killed, so nobody really knew why he did it or what he had planned. People were also scared because they didn’t know if there was more coming or if Lee Harvey Oswald had more people helping him. What also made this event very sad was that John F. Kennedy was very well liked and a nice person. He was a young president, had a nice family, and had good ideas about running the country. He was also the first Catholic president and that was a very big deal. Everyone was surprised when he was elected because he was Catholic. John F. Kennedy brought new blood to the White House and it was very sad to see him go.”
 * 8. What was the impact of the assassination on the city and the people?**

__Summary of the Assassination of JFK__ During his electoral battle tour in the south of the States, John F. Kennedy visited Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Kennedy, Governor John Connally and their wives sat down in the limousine of the President which led the motorcade through the town. Just when the limousine passed the Stemmons Freeway sign, Mrs. Connally heard a kind of gunshots. When she turned looking at the President, she saw him taking his hand to his throat covering a shooting wound. The next second Governor Connally felt an ache in his back which he recognized as a shot. Both men were rushed to Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. The death of the popular young president shocked the nation. 45 minutes later, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for being accused of murder to John F. Kennedy. Two days later, Oswald was supposed to be handed over to the state prison, but in the garage of the police building, he was shot by Jack Ruby in front of hundreds of journalists.


 * Information from:**

Schuster, Ralph. "The Assassination: An Overview." //The John F. Kennedy Assassination Homepage//. 4 Mar 2006. 31 May 2009 .

"John F. Kennedy: assassination." __American History__. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 31 May 2009 .

__Reflection of the Assassination of JFK__

Everyone knows about the great tragedy that befell our country in 1963. It was the main event of the 20th century, and the hysteria that followed it would not be paralleled until September 11, 2001. This tragedy, of course, is the assassination of JFK. Before this interview, I of course knew about the events of that day in 1963. I knew that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot and killed by an assasin named Lee Harvey Oswald, and that Oswald himself was killed only a few days later. What I did not know, however, is how greatly this tragic event affected the American people. From these interviews I learned that, first off, everyone in America felt terrible for the remainder of the Kennedy family. It was almost like a conspiracy, how so many people in that one family died so tragically. I also learned that the media covered it nonstop, and tried to expose everything. I also learned that there were many other things going on during that era, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the burning of the draft papers in Milwaukee. I was very surprised that my Grandfather had met the President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie Kennedy. That was so unbelievable! However, I feel that the most important thing I learned through my interviews is that JFK's assassination was a tragic event that really stuck in the American people's minds.