Eastern Iowans reflect on JFK 50 years after his death

Larry Baker remembers the day he shook John F. Kennedy's hand.

It was the day the president died, 50 years ago, on Nov. 22, 1963.

At least, he thinks he remembers it. A junior at Richland High School east of Fort Worth, Texas, he said he and a friend drove to the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the president, who had stayed there the night before.

That's where the memory begins to break down. For years, the Iowa City author told family and friends and students there were only a few people waiting outside the hotel. In the memory he's relived again and again, he and Kennedy talked about first lady Jackie Kennedy as they shook hands.

In reality, there were thousands of people in the crowd. Baker said he did shake Kennedy's hand that morning, but it was a split-second interaction with no words exchanged. The facts of the day had blurred - the truth only revealed more than 20 years later when he saw news footage from in front of the Hotel Texas.

“Having been there in the  morning and then going to high school that day and hearing the announcement right after a big pep rally - somehow my brain got short-circuited,” he said. “The thing you remember and repeat is the memory that seems the most real to you.”

For him, and for countless others, the day the 35th president of the United States died was a day of trauma.

Ellen Fisher, 66, of Cedar Rapids, remembers her high school physics teacher in Milwaukee turning off the classroom lights as they heard the announcement the president had been shot.

“It felt much better to hear that news in a dim room than under bright lights,” she said. “It was an awful feeling. It sort of felt like I had just been punched in the gut.”

Even now, 50 years later, the memories of that day and the days that followed, such as watching the riderless black horse in the funeral parade, bring tears to her eyes.

“It was a cloudy, dreary day, or at least that's how I remember it,” she said. “It just seemed like nature was grieving.”

Her husband Allen Fisher, remarked on how the memory of that day was seared into the national consciousness.

“It was really the first time the nation as a country watched an event together,” he said. “Starting from Friday afternoon until the funeral on Sunday, everyone was riveted to their televisions.”

Fisher, now a Coe College professor emeritus of sociology, is giving a public lecture series on the legacies of Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's vice president and successor as president after the assassination.

“It is striking to realize that only one in five Americans living today are old enough to remember President Kennedy at all,” he told about 75 attendees at the first lecture Nov. 7. “To most of us here, he is still a haunting presence.”

He also spoke about how Kennedy's death led to his growth into a legendary figure in the national imagination.

“Today, Kennedy's retrospective approval rating is between 75 and 80 percent, depending on what survey you use,” he said. “That's nearly 30 points higher in death than it was in life.”

Baker remembers Kennedy's death as shocking because it shattered his sense of security, something many at the Coe lecture remarked upon as well.

“If the most powerful man in the world can just be erased in a split second, then nothing about your own life is ever for sure anymore,” he said. “It's not just a death, it's a death of someone who is larger than life.”

To mark the anniversary, Baker has helped plan a memorial to be held on the anniversary date at the Iowa City Public Library. He will read a short story, “Happy Valley High,” based on a pep rally that happened at his high school at the same time Kennedy was riding through Dallas.

The event also will include a reading by Prairie Lights Books co-owner Jan Weissmiller of Robert Frost's poem, “The Gift Outright,” which the poet read at Kennedy's 1961 inaugural; a reading by Ed Folsom, University of Iowa professor of English,  from Walt Whitman's “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed”; and a talk, “The Legacy of JFK,” by Loren Glass, UI associate professor of English.

If time allows, the audience will share memories of where they were when they learned the president had been shot.

The memorial will be noon to 1 p.m. Organizers chose that time because 50 years ago, the president was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. Central Time.

Events commemorating the anniversary:

• What: Memorial for 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, hosted by Prairie Lights and the Iowa City Public Library
• Where: Iowa City Public Library,123 S. Linn St., meeting room A
• When: noon to 1 p.m., Friday, Nov. 22
• Cost: Free
• Learn more: Contact Larry Baker, flamingo@avalon.net

• What: “Fifty Years After Dallas: The Legacies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson” lecture series
• Where: Coe College, Kessler Lecture Hall in Hickok Hall
• When: Final two lectures are Nov. 21 and Dec. 5 and will focus on Johnson's legacy. Coffee and pastries 8:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., class until 11:30 a.m. Lunch offered on Dec. 5
• Cost: $12 per week. Lunch costs $8.
• Learn more: Contact Lonnie Zingula, (319) 399-8613 or lzingula@coe.edu

• What: "Eternal Flame: The Life and Times of John and Jacqueline Kennedy" exhibit and memorial service.
• Where: Summit Pointe Senior Living Community, 3505 English Glen Ave., Marion
• When: 2 p.m., Nov. 17. Exhibit will remain on display until Nov. 24.
• Cost: free
• Learn more: Contact David Wendell, (319) 377-6679