Forged and Sustained by Four Days of Television
“All of us who knew him will bear the grief of his death until the day of ours.”
-Adlai Stevenson, US Ambassador to the UN, November 22, 1963.
For many of us who were children at the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, bearing that grief — as Adlai Stevenson so aptly described it — has lasted 60 years. We knew JFK. He was part of the family, or at least a good friend. The acclaimed and influential 1960’s rock group, The Byrds, underlined those sentiments in their 1965 ballad lamenting a life cut short. For many baby boomers, the feelings still resonate.
He never knew my name
Though I never met him
I knew him just the same
Oh, he was a friend of mine
Leader of a nation for such a precious time
Oh, he was a friend of mine
(Mc Guinn, 1965)
The baby boom generation, or baby boomers, (and I dislike the term,) were born between 1946 and 1964. They’re currently between 57-75 years old, 71 million in the U.S. (Kasasa, 2021).
I was 8 years old at the time, and like so many of my generation, I remember that Friday afternoon like it happened yesterday. Baby boomers, who recall that day, usually start off with…I was in school. When we arrived home, we watched TV the rest of that Friday and for the following three days.
It is they [Baby Boomers] who have carried this torch, they who have fueled its flame. When talk turns to the inevitable question — “Where were you when you heard the president had been shot?” — the dominant answer in American culture is this one: “I was in school.” It is almost as if no adults were around on the Friday of the assassination, except as bit players. This is because baby boomers — who were, indeed, in school that day — are the ones who have shaped the national memories of this event (Anthony, 2013).
I grew up in a large New York City housing project in Flushing, Queens that was built to house 10,000 residents. Opened in 1951, the complex was home to mainly World War II veterans and their families. With several thousand children growing up so closely together, it became baby boomer heaven. “It was a time before video games, personal computers, and smart phones, when the concept of a play date was unheard of, with always enough kids downstairs in your court for a choose-up game of punch ball or football, or just a one-on-one game of stoop ball or skelly. It was a paradise for kids, but far from Leave it Beaver or Father Knows Best” (Gordon, 2016).
The neighborhood was predominately Jewish, Italian, Irish, and African American. As children, we all played together, and we got along well. Most families had one black-and-white TV in their living rooms. Even in New York City, there were only five or six channels back then, and you had to get up to change channels.
A tragic event, heavily covered by the TV networks, occurred just two months before the Kennedy assassination. What I remember most about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was how upset my parents, neighbors and family friends were as we watched TV news reports.
I overheard my father speaking to a neighbor down the hall, “Those bastards in the South…how could they do that to four little kids in church.” It was the first time I had ever heard him curse.
Much has been written about Walter Cronkite’s leading role as network anchor during the coverage of JFK’s assassination. In my house, we watched NBC News…and so did much of America in 1963. “During most of the 1950s and 1960s, NBC lead the network evening news ratings race. CBS was a respectable second and ABC a distant third. However, that began to change in 1967 when Walter Cronkite’s ratings improved” (Shedden, 2011). Every weekday evening, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley talked to us and to each other. It was almost like a conversation at dinner.
NBC News was the only television network that broadcast the transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald to the Dallas County Jail live. We had just returned from Sunday Mass when my father and I sat down to watch Jack Ruby step in and shoot Oswald. As my father reacted in horror, I wondered how Oswald was going to be able to eat after being shot in the stomach. For four days, we did little else but watch TV.
Over 90% of Americans parked themselves in front of their television sets for an average of eight to 10 hours a day, according to A.C. Nielsen statistics; one-sixth of households had their television sets on for even longer. Social scientists noted that television accommodated people who needed to grapple with the trauma alone, as well as those who wanted to be with family and friends (Bodroghkozy, 2022).
For baby boomers, JFK’s death was personal, and watching TV turned us all into active participants and mourners. The public sphere those four days was not to be found on the streets, in cafeterias or barber shops, but in front a TV set.
Ninety-six percent of Americans watched the networks’ ceremonial coverage of Kennedy’s state funeral, and letter writers marveled at their sense of being there. “I, from my home in Cincinnati, was permitted to be there by way of television,” one high school student wrote to David Brinkley. “I was present at the scene of his death. I walked to the cathedral with Mrs. Kennedy and the famous dignitaries” (Bodroghkozy, 2022).
Personal memories of the JFK assassination were forged and sustained by the four days of massive television coverage, from that Friday through the following Monday, the day of the funeral. The events of November 22, 1963, started in school for most of us…beginning with some kind of announcement made by a principle over an intercom or relayed to us by a teacher in tears. After six decades, what baby boomers remember about the assassination and its aftermath vary, but the similarities are stark.
Susie Weems lived in Hutchinson, Kansas and was 9 years old.
(In discussion with the author, October 2023.)
The teacher told the class that he’d been shot. There was shock, disbelief, sadness, and a lot of crying. We were sent home early, and I walked with friends. We were all very confused. I don’t remember who told me that JFK died. I think I probably learned about it while watching TV. My parents were home, but I don’t remember their reactions. I remember watching the replays of the motorcade in Dallas, of Oswald with the police, the funeral procession, Jackie, and her children. For a long time, I did not understand why it happened. I don’t think we ever got the answers. Too much was left hanging. As I grew older, I began to lose faith in government. I also wanted to be more aware about things and wanting to be involved in changing things for the better.
Ted Davis lived in Glencoe, Illinois and was one month shy of his 8th birthday.
(In discussion with the author, October 2023.)
Ted’s first memory of JFK was meeting him at a small fundraising luncheon during the 1960 campaign. His parents were the only African Americans invited to the Dupont home for the event. He and a few other children were playing outdoors when JFK walked over to say hi. Ted said JFK seemed like a nice guy and that it was more like shaking the hand of a relative.
I remember coming home after he was shot, my mother was crying while my father turned the channels looking for the best coverage. I felt more sadness watching the funeral procession than anything else I saw on TV the previous three days…the boots on the horse turned backwards, John John saluting, and the eternal flame. After the assassination, I became very interested in the world around me. In 1964, I began to read about Apartheid in South Africa, the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, Malcolm X, and MLK. I was in 5th grade when I joined the Black Panthers, but my parents did not know it about it. The Black Panthers could travel anywhere in Chicago without being harassed. We were welcomed in disadvantaged communities where we could help. Even at that age, I felt part of something big.
Celia Rose lived in Fresh Meadows, New York and was 15 years old.
(In discussion with the author, October 2023.)
I attended a Catholic high school and there were pictures of JFK and Jackie in my homeroom. There was total bedlam when it was announced over the intercom that he had been shot. Then, a second announcement informed us that JFK had died. I remember someone saying, “he was our president”. At home, there was so much TV. I could not absorb the imagery of it all, JFK grabbing his throat, Oswald’s arrest, Jackie in her black veil, the funeral procession. The visuals were exhaustive, but no one had answers or an explanation. I wondered, who could have hated him so much? The element of the fun and glamour of the Kennedys was no more. I remembered the Cuban Missile Crisis the year before. It was a threatening time that seemed even more threatening. It was like floating out in the ocean and you didn’t know how to come back.
Marie Ford lived in Shelby, Montana and was 8 years old.
(In discussion with the author, October 2023.)
Without any explanation, the principal announced that we were to head home immediately. We all knew something bad had happened. I did not know until I saw my mother, who was crying while listening to the radio, said the president had been shot. Growing up in a small and remote Montana town, I did not know until that day that people could kill other people. The big crime where I lived was kids stealing candy from the grocery store. With so many outdoor activities, we hardly ever watched TV. Everything changed. During those four days, we watched the wall-to-wall coverage…hour after hour. After the funeral though, we all had had enough, and my father turned the channel to a Canadian TV station that had resumed normal programming. I was usually in bed before the news was on, but after the assassination, I began to stay awake to watch the news. I discovered there was a world beyond Shelby, and we needed to pay attention. I often look back at JFK’s call to public service, and what we can do to make things better…always, always.
Just before signing off late Friday on the day of the assassination, NBC News anchor David Brinkley offered a brilliant perspective that summarizes the events of that day and serves as a reminder of the kind of torch baby boomers have carried since November 22, 1963.
It has all been shocking but perhaps one element in the shock was the speed. By the Washington clock, at a little after one o’clock this afternoon, President Kennedy was about as alive as any human being ever gets. Young. Strong. Vigorous. Looking forward to no doubt five more years, he hoped, of leadership in this country and of the Western world… Five hours later, at six o’clock, Mr. Kennedy had been murdered. Lyndon Johnson was President of the United States. Mrs. Kennedy was a widow, a brave and composed one that nobody could fail to admire. All of them were back in Washington, returning in the same airplane that took them to Texas to an incredible tragedy. And the sheer speed of it was too much for the senses…
What has happened today has been too much, too ugly, and too fast. (David Brinkley commentary from the night of JFK’s assassination 2013).
For millions of baby boomers, who have for six decades reflected on the day a presidency was cut too short, that painful memory may also be too enduring.
Photo: Lee Harvey Oswald grimaces as Jack Ruby shoots him in the abdomen at point blank range on November 24, 1963. AP Photo/Dallas Times-Herald, Bob Jackson. (https://flickr.com/photos/85635025@N04/12894979093/in/photolist-AFaCkR-kDu92K-2B5dBZ-QicjUM-4ktEVn, Courtesy of Creative Commons).
About the author: Peter Morello is an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Prior to teaching, he was a local TV news reporter for four years and later served as PBS correspondent in Europe for 15 years.
References
Anthony, T. (2013, November 22). JFK’s death still vivid for baby boomers. The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/jfkrsquos-death-still-vivid-for-baby-boomers/
Bodroghkozy, A. (2022, September 13). Bob Dylan brings links between JFK assassination and coronavirus into stark relief. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/bob-dylan-brings-links-between-jfk-assassination-and-coronavirus-into-stark-relief-135013
Gordon, A. (2016). Choose Up Games. In My Pomonok: Growing up in a Queens NY Housing Project. essay, lulu.com.
The Kasasa Exchange. (2021, July 6). Boomers, gen X, Gen Y, gen Z, and gen a explained. The Kasasa Exchange. https://offer.kasasa.com/exchange/articles/generations/gen-x-gen-y-gen-z
Mc Guinn, R. (1965). The byrds – he was a friend of mine. Genius. https://genius.com/The-byrds-he-was-a-friend-of-mine-lyrics
The New York Times. (1963, November 23). Tributes cite loss to U. S. and world. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1963/11/23/tributes-cite-loss-to-u-s-and-world.html
Shedden, D. (2011, September 8). Early TV anchors. Poynter. https://www.poynter.org/archive/2006/early-tv-anchors/
YouTube. (2013, September 1). David Brinkley commentary from the night of JFK’s assassination. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X_z6T9u-tw
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