The Facts from Clute, Texas • Page 13

THE FACTS Sunday, November 22, 199813A 35 years later: JFK assassination Most Americans too young to remember fateful day in Dallas By SUSAN MONTOYA Associated Press DALLAS (AP) At one time, every American could describe, with keen emotional detail, the moment he or she heard President John F. Kennedy was dead, cut down by an assassin in Dallas. That shocking moment was followed by days of nationwide mourning punctuated by orations under the Capitol dome, by the widow and daughter appearing at the flag-draped casket, by a solemn funeral cortege that was paced by hollow drumbeats and followed by a riderless horse, and by a little boy's salute. A quarter of a century later, the anniversary was observed by the opening of the Sixth Floor Museum in the former School Book Depository, the building where the shots were fired. On the 30th anniversary, the site of the assassination was commemorated as a national historical landmark.

Now, 35 years after shots rang but over Dealey Plaza, little fanfare was expected for Sunday's anniversary of the event that convulsed the nation. In fact, other than the usual handful of curious people milling about Dealey Plaza, the day was expected to be uneventful, said Bob Porter, director of public programs at the Sixth Floor Museum. Porter said that's understandable, considering how many Americans were old enough to reason with what happened in 1963. Of the more than 265 million people in the United States, about half were not even born at the time of the assassination. They missed the shock of the assassination, the national mourning period with those sharp images of the funeral.

And mostly they missed living in the shadow of an uncertain period when Americans were try- ing to find their place against the backdrop of the Cold War, Cuba and later the Vietnam War. So can it be said that fewer people care about Kennedy's assassination? It may be more a matter of respect than of care, said David Farber, who has written several books on American political history and has taught history at Columbia University. "I wonder if all the disclosures about Kennedy's tawdry nature in the White House about his affairs has something to do with it," Farber said. "I think that the comparisons being drawn between Clinton and Kennedy do not look favorable on either of them, and I think people may have lost some of their respect for Kennedy," he added. He noted that Kennedy, who won the White House by a fraction of the vote in 1960, was not so popular as people remember.

He said the legend that grew up around Kennedy built upon the unimaginable event, the killing of the president of the United States. The 35th anniversary also is missing something important Jackie Kennedy, whose presence helped keep her slain husband in the public consciousness, noted Farber, who wrote The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s and The Sixties: From Memory to History. The president's widow died in 1994. But even if the commemorations have dissipated over the years, for whatever reason, the passions of those present at the event have not. Jean Hill, who was 32 then, remembers the exact spot where she was standing when the fatal bullet struck.

"That day is so vivid and it played in my head so many nights and I've spent so many nights turning it over in my head like a tape and the tape never changes," said Hill, who served as a techni- Assassination diary: Notes by Connally's press aide resurface AUSTIN (AP) The pages are yellowed with age. The fountain pen's blue ink is faded. The hastily scribbled words remain as haunting as ever, though. Scrawled on the back of a typewritten speech that President Kennedy gave in the mist outside the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth: "First thing he called for: Where's Nellie? How are the children?" Julian Read, who had been hired to work with the news media during President Kennedy's fateful trip to Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, jotted the notes about Texas Gov.

John Connally hours after he was wounded and Kennedy was assassinated. Looking at the words he'd written 35 years ago and only recently seen again Read recalled the sound of the shots. "When I saw the limousine speed away, I knew that something terrible had happened. We didn't know what," said Read, who was aboard the presidential motorcade bus carrying White House news reporters. They were four or five vehicles behind the car carrying the president, the governor and their wives.

Read, now president of an Austin-based public relations firm, followed the victims to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he provided reports on Connally's condition, coordinated a news conference for Mrs. Connally, and fielded questions from around the world. Jotted on one piece of paper, Read described Nellie Connally telling her husband that Kennedy had been killed: "Mrs. C. told of death of president.

I know was his response. I know." Read's assistant, who ended up with the brown accordion file marked "assassination" in big, black letters, mailed it to him about three weeks ago with a note indicating she had meant to return it sooner. "I was shocked because all the memories came rolling back, like a wave." he said. "I just discovered my own private time capsule, 35 years later." First thing he called for: Where's Nellie? How are the children?" -JULIAN READ Gov. Connally press aide Maria Westfall said her job back then called for sorting and filing her boss' paperwork, which often included little scraps of paper and notes scribbled on the backs of envelopes.

She put all of it into a safe- deposit box in Fort Worth, knowing "that one of these days this was something he should have as a keepsake." Westfall always had hoped that she and her former boss could go through the file together. But it never happened, so she went back and reaad every piece of paper before sending it back. "It's just like time stood still. I could visualize every moment," Westfall said. "It's kind of an eerie feeling, really." Inside was routine paperwork, and much more: information for the briefings on Connally's medical condition; a handwritten note from the doctor caring for the wounded governor; a memo listing names of emergency room nurses, orderlies and aides who treated Kennedy and Connally.

Among the old papers were carbon copies of suggested local comments and jokes for Kennedy to use. Had he appeared at the Dallas luncheon, one suggestion was to comment on the upcoming Cotton Bowl. The University of Texas football team was ranked No. and Navy No. 2.

"I like the idea of the Navy- Texas game, personally, and I'd like to do what I can to help," the proposed joke read, "except that I know how you folks feel about federal intervention." Connally died in 1993 at age 75. His wife is still alive. President John F. Kennedy is shown riding in a motorcade approximately one minute before he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

AP photo In the car riding with Kennedy are Jacqueline Kennedy and Gov. and Mrs. John Connally. cal adviser for Oliver Stone's movie JFK. residents were ashamed and angry that Kennedy other things, like a football franchise known as Porter, a reporter for the now-defunct Dallas had been killed here.

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