OH+Q's

1. Describe your life situation when John F. Kennedy was elected in November, 1960. I had just turned 12, in 7th grade at St. Robert Grade School in Shorewood; the third oldest of 11 children born to Jane and Bob (W. Robert) O’Brien. Dad worked in the accounting department at Briggs & Stratton Corp and Mom ran the household.
 * Questions **

2. How did you feel about the newly elected president? Why? I was excited to be part of history. Never before had a Catholic been elected president. There was a sense that now anything was possible. JFK was young and handsome with a beautiful wife and two charming children, a perfect example of family.

3. Do you remember other people’s opinions about the president? What was their reasoning? I never heard my parents or the teachers at school say a negative thing about him. My Mom talked about Al Smith, a Catholic presidential candidate during the late 1920’s when she was about 10 years old. (She was born in 1918) From studying history I know there was a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment in this country during the 1920’s, especially in the South, and the fact that he even got the Democratic nomination was huge. Mom especially was very happy that during her lifetime a Catholic was elected to the highest office in our land. I think it was the same way many blacks must have felt when .President Obama was elected.

4. What impacted your life during JFK’s presidency? How? About a year before President Kennedy was killed, he confronted the Soviet Union in what came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. They wanted to put missiles in Cuba. The threat of the Cold War heating up was very real. President Kennedy dispatched naval warships to block the Cuban ports and keep the Soviet ships away. I felt a tremendous mixture of pride and relief when the Soviet ships turned back and certain nuclear disaster was averted. President Kennedy knew how to use the media. There was a TV special in which Mrs. Kennedy gave a tour of the White House with all sorts of history about the house and its furnishings thrown it. It was the first time that the “common people” had such accessibility to the presidency. “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” The quote from his inaugural speech became an anthem.

5. Where were you and what were you doing when you found out he had been shot? I was a sophomore at Dominican High School in Mrs. Wallersheim’s 6th hour geometry class. Without any explanation, a radio broadcast came over the PA system. I thought someone was playing a prank, but then I heard the words, “Shots fired at the President’s motorcade in Dallas...President Kennedy wounded...rushed to Parkland Hospital.....condition not known but thought to be serious” Then the broadcast cut off. I think Sr. Estelle, the principal came on and said she would let us know when she heard any more news and suggested we pray...which we did.

6. Please set the scene of when he was pronounced dead. Shortly after we heard that the President had been shot, we had to change classes. I will never forget the stunned silence that filled those halls during what was normally a noisy and boisterous three minute class change especially on a Friday. If anyone spoke at all, it was in whispers. I arrived at Sister Marie Clarence’s English class. She was a younger nun; we thought she was pretty cool. She said she hadn’t heard anything further. We started class. Then the PA came on again with the radio broadcast and the news that President Kennedy had been killed. A couple of the girls behind me started sobbing. I don’t remember crying just a profound sense of sadness. Then Sister Estelle came back on and said that the Saint Cecilia Day music concert that had been scheduled for 2:00 pm would go on as planned. My reaction was, “You’ve got to be kidding.” Sister Marie Clarence said of her superior, “Well, she’s got more guts that I have.”

7. How did your family react to the tragic assassination? I remember a sense of loss; a loss of innocence or security. These things happened in some South American dictatorship but not here in the US of A. As far as the rest of the family, I know everyone was talking about what they were doing when they heard the news. My Mom used to tell us where she was when she heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. She said this would be our generation’s “Pearl Harbor.” I think my Mom and Dad were more saddened than upset, but then it wasn’t their way to get emotional in front of us kids.

8. Did you watch the Funeral on the television and what stood out about it? Yes. The country basically shut down for four days. This was my first experience of wall to wall media coverage. They televised his casket lying in state in the capitol rotunda with the Marine honor guard at attention. I watched as Mrs. Kennedy brought Caroline and John Jr. to pay their respects. John-John, all of two years old stood at attention like the guards and gave a salute to his father that choked up everyone. What stood out to me was the riderless horse with the upturned boots in its’ stirrups that was part of the funeral cortege that processed from the capitol rotunda to the cathedral where his funeral Mass was held.

9. Did you see Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder on television? How did you react to it then? Now? I know the TV was on in our living room, but I wasn’t really paying attention and I don’t think I saw the shooting actually happen. I sure started watching when I heard the commotion right after it happened. I couldn’t believe that such a thing could happen, even though it was there in black and white for all to see. The biggest question then was “why?” It was just another event in a surreal weekend. As far as now; well, that event just spawned a host of conspiracy theories. Oswald was obviously silenced, why and by whom? These questions have never been satisfactorily answered in my opinion.

10. What was JFK’s legacy and how has it affected your life now? JFK was the first president that I truly took an interest in, starting with his election campaign. Eisenhower was an old man and I was too young to remember President Truman. We were allowed to watch his inauguration on TV at school, 7th grade at St. Roberts. We had these big TVs mounted on wheeled wooden stands that were stored in the second floor library and were brought to the classrooms for us to watch historic occasions like the early space launches and the inauguration of the first Catholic President. I think he was the youngest man to be elected President at that time. I remember the contrast between old and young, the exiting President Eisenhower in formal attire complete with top hat, walking with the new President also in formal attire, but without a hat, his thick head of hair very visible in the cold January sun. Even such a thing as no hat said to me, “this is a new day, a new era.” I know now that Kennedy was a flawed man, and as often happens when someone dies so tragically and so young, the myth becomes bigger than the man. I witnessed a part of history. That is his legacy to me.

11. How did you feel about the new president? Lyndon Johnson did his best, but how can you follow someone like John Kennedy?