The Last Time I Felt THIS Unsure of the Presidency

"President Kennedy has been shot!" announced Principal J. Arthur Stewart over the school's intercom during 3rd period P.E. class November 22. 1963.  To this eleventh grader, "shot" meant killed, so, it was sort of redundant when Stewart came over the school's public address system again in the fourth period to say: "President Kennedy has died."(We later learned that the President had died instantly, but that's the way the news originally came to us.

Mr. Smith, the typing teacher, said it would be best if we all just typed the rest of the period.

Nena, already in the U.S. Army at a base in South Carolina, heard a similar announcement from the TV in the barracks.

Johnson Sworn In As President

We saw Jack Ruby kill Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on national TV. Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.

After school I worked at a radio station on the Old Benson Highway between Kent and Renton, Washington.  I was mesmerized by the rhythmic sound of the teletype machine as condolences from all over the world folded first one way, then the other, dropping into a box below the machine.

It surprised me that Russian President Nikita Khrushchev was among those offering sympathy to the American people.

I remember wondering if Johnson was up to the job of leader of the free world.  I knew he'd been picked as Vice President to "balance the ticket" and I'd heard his funny southern accent.

Johnson, an experienced politician, hit the ground running, dutifully pushing Kennedy's agenda.  In the '64 election, he kicked Barry Goldwater's ass, but then in his first elected term, escalated the Viet Nam War, losing the general support of the American people.