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My JFK Story



1000 words remaining.



By sharing your story, you might remind someone what's truly important in life or even connect with a generation who has only read about "Camelot" in textbooks. "My life was changed by JFK. Please read my story below and I welcome you to share yours also." - Mike Fuljenz


In 1959, Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie made a presidential campaign stop in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to attend a dinner with area supporters like my attorney father. My mother, a history teacher, also attended. She asked Senator Kennedy to write something inspirational to her pupils on the menu. He quoted Daniel Webster and when he wrote the word “develop,” my mother told me Jackie Kennedy leaned over and politely suggested a correction to the word “build.” Jack quickly crossed through “develop,” wrote “build” above and continued. Mom thought he was charming and Jackie looked like she had just stepped out of the beauty parlor. Her students were as inspired as 8th graders can be when she showed this to her classes. The original piece hangs today in a prominent place in my living room as a remembrance of my mother, her dedication to education, and my parents' special night with the future president.  - Mike Fuljenz

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November 22, 1963, was to be a big day in my life.  It was our fifth wedding anniversary, we had a beautiful 18-month-old son, and the grandparents were lined up for babysitting so we could go out for a big evening.  I had just started a new job with IBM in San Antonio and was driving back from lunch when I first heard the news over the car radio.  Needless to say, we cancelled our celebration and spent the next three days glued to the television set.  Some things happen that affect your life and the ...

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I wasn't alive when Kennedy was assasinated but I remember my parents talking about it years later.  They had just started dating and my dad was in the Coast Guard.  Their first date was the week of his death.  I remember people saying my mom looked just like Jackie.  Impressive leader, visionary and president.

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I remember very clearly, that my four children were in school and my husband was working. I was making my bed with the radio on and the news came on reporting President John F. Kennedys assassination. I became numb and I had to sit down on the bed and listen to the news report. I then went into the living room and turned on the TV. I just sat their listening until my kids came home from school. They had heard about it at school and were telling me about it. Then my husband came home. He worked construction and ...

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I was stationed at Fort Campbell Kentucky when our president was assassinated. It was very hard for me to accept the fact that someone would due such a thing. I remember it like it happened yesterday. JFK was by far the best president the United States has ever had. He was an American Hero. - GA, CSM US Army Retired.

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Nov 19 was our 3rd wedding anniversary and on the 22nd I was at work.  When I got home I saw on the news that JFK was shot.  The next day a chidhood freind showed up at my door whom I had not seen in 30 years, how he found me I'll never know.  We lived on the third floor, his name is Kendall P.  he told me he worked for the goverment under cover, he had a 15 page report he wrote on the shooting and a picture of oswald standing in the doorway of ...

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On that fateful Friday, November 22nd, 1963, I was only five years and five weeks old, and in morning kindergarten at McLean Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas. After the end of my half-day of school, my mother was driving me to the barber shop for a haircut, and we were waiting at a stoplight at the intersection of 25th and Amidon Streets when she heard on the radio that the president had been shot. To my mother, this was such shocking news that she could not immediately grasp what she had just heard.  Just a few minutes later, when we ...

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Where was I on November 22, 1963, you ask? I was in 5th grade, awaiting the start of my music class. Our music teacher, Ms. Kirkwood, was always cheerful and upbeat, but when she walked into the classroom that afternoon, she looked ashen and extremely solemn. I knew before she even spoke that something terrible had happened and when she told the class that President Kennedy had been killed, I was totally in shock. It's something I'll never forget as long as I live.

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I was in my early twenties and stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga. I was off-duty and out at a club in Columbus, Ga., when we got the alert to report back to base, but not told the reason except something terrible happened, and we were on full alert.  When arriving at our barracks, we were told we were on alert because Pres. Kennedy had been assassinated in Texas. It was strange to see so many soldiers who cried, because he was probably the best loved Commander in Chief of any president who ever served. To this day I still remenber ...

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I was 32 years old and working as an accountant in the Education Dept. of the State of Wisconsin. Our offices were located under the Rotunda in the capital Madison, Wisconsin. Some employee of another department came in and said the President had just been shot. Somehow a radio appeared and everyone moved to the center of the room and listened to the newscaster. Soon it was stated President Kennedy had died. As expected not much work work was finished the rest of the day. To say the least, it was a shocking event.

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I was a mechanic at a Ford dealership. It was an unusually warm day when another mechanic, who had been test driving a vehicle, came rushing into the repair bay, jumped out and shouted "the President has just been shot." There was dead silence as we all tried to digest the info we had just heard. We all turned the radios of the vehicle we were working on to a local news station and listened in startled disbelief, not wanting to believe what we were hearing.  It was a very long afternoon until we could clock out and get to ...

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November 22, 1963 - I was in school, the fall of my fourth grade year. I remember that the teachers all went out in the hall whispering (and some crying), and us kids were looking around at each other wondering what was going on, sitting quietly even though no adults were present (which wouldn't happen today). We were sent home early - all of us walked to school at that time, and most of us had moms at home with younger siblings. I remember my mother and her relatives being particularly upset because they felt JFK was one of them, ...

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I was a SSGT on duty at a site in Sinop, Turkey overlooking the Black Sea. I was performing Sergeant of The Guard and was in the MP hut. One of our duties was to go to the Operations Building and read the iing messages to determine if any warranted the notification of the Sitemander. Before I could make the trip to Operations I received a call to proceed there immediately, that there was something I needed to see. When I arrived at Operations I went immediately to the Center and was shown a message that announced that President Kennedy ...

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I was a senior in high school attending a conference in the auditorium when Mother Superior announced that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. Our whole senior class was devastated because we were going to the White House in April 1964 and suppose to have a meeting with the President. Our trip went on in April, but it wasn't the same because of the Country's great loss.  To this day and at this moment it is still unreal that we lost a great leader.

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In the fall of November 1963, I was only eight months old. According to my mother, I was napping in my crib; she had said, right about the time the President was shot, I had awakened from a normally peaceful sleep, seemingly very agitated. As I grew up, I have always been interested in following the story (for as long as I can remember); I always had a sense that there indeed was more than one gunman. I have also felt and still do -- whether or not there was more than one shooter, there was/is something very strange going ...

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I was  a 9 year-old sitting in my fourth grade class right up front, closest to the teacher, at Willard elementary school in Quincy, Massachusetts. My teacher was called out of class abruptly........a few minutes later she walked back in with tears running down her cheeks and quite shaken. She told us President Kennedy had been shot and that classes were ending for the day.  My classmates and I were gathered together and we were led to the school buses....the school was shutting down. We were all quiet and unsettled, not really sure as to what was happening...... we ...

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I was in the tailor shop of E.J. Korvette's in Oaklawn, Ill. with the head buyer from New York Joe Cohn (merchandise manager) from the men's division, when the store manager walked in and said the president had been shot. Everybody ran up stairs to the manager's office to watch the T.V. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent paying attention to what happened. We closed the store on the day he was buried, and then closed the store for Thanksgiving. The 2 days were very close together. The entire population in the U.S. was just devastated ...

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I was not born (6 years later) but that date was also my father's birthday (15th) As you can imagine that every year on my dad's birthday, he hear about Kennedy stories, making him feel sad that he has to share his birthday with a death of beloved president.  I was told that on November 22, 1963.  He was having fun, partying with his friends. Somebody heard radio and walk into the room, scream "Kennedy got shot!" The party died right away and spend rest of the day/night glue to radio/TV.  I was born deaf and use ...

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I was in high school, in Dallas, where I grew up. When the news of the President's death was put on the news, the school was closed the remainder of the day. Many were crying. The president died in the same hospital, Parkland, where my uncle had died. When I went to visit my uncle, prior to his death, I had some great talks with the deputy sheriff's providing security there. I watched on live TV when Jack ruby shot and killed Oswald. I later became a deputy sheriff myself.