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50-YEAR JOHN F. KENNEDY MEMORIAL ISSUE
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Volume 118
LSU, BATON ROUGE, LA., FRIDAY, NOV. 22, 2013
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Issue 60
Tragic killing relevant 50 years later Louisiana has special ties to assassination By ANDREA GALLO Senior Reporter
Jesse Walker was a young LSU professor looking at samples in his lab. For him, it was a normal day marred by bad news. But for Raymond Strother, an Associated Press reporter in Baton Rouge and LSU graduate student, it was the day that dimmed his hopes for America. Strother looked up to President John F. Kennedy as a leader who represented his young generation. Today marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, one of the most tragic incidents in the nation’s history. The generation of college students today never cheered on the handsome, young president. Millennials weren’t alive to feel the pang of the bullet that shot through Kennedy’s head and pierced America’s heart. But the stories about JFK, his “Camelot” era in the White House and the day when everything changed have filtered down through students’ parents, professors, coaches and bosses. LSU lacks a definitive account of how campus reacted to hearing the news of the president’s death on Nov. 22, 1963. Archives come up empty for records of statements from the Board of Supervisors and the Office of Public Relations, according to Assistant University Archivist Barry Cowan. But those who were in Louisiana remember the sense of mourning that transcended the nation. “It was like life stopped at that point,” Strother said. Kennedy was visiting Dallas and riding in a motorcade downtown, his wife by his side, when he was shot in front of hundreds. Lyndon B. Johnson, his vice president, was immediately sworn in as his successor. A famous photo captured the freshly widowed Jacqueline Kennedy, still wearing her iconic pink Chanel suit, standing next to Johnson as he was sworn in to the presidency. Police captured Lee
Harvey Oswald, the alleged shooter, at the Texas Theatre. Oswald had also killed Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit shortly after killing Kennedy. On Nov. 24, police were transferring Oswald to the county jail when Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed him. Without a trial to convict Oswald, the slew of unanswered questions grew and ignited a storm of conspiracies. The Warren Commission was formed to investigate Kennedy’s assassination. Its hotly contested 1964 report named Oswald as Kennedy’s lone assassin. The report claimed Oswald acted alone and killed the president with a rifle from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Fifty years later, the image of JFK has morphed from a struggling first-term president to a glittering example of leadership. But the American public has stayed much the same, according to Strother. “The 50th anniversary comes at a critical point in history because we can see history repeating itself,” Strother said. He referenced the vitriol and
JFK, see page 15
THE DAILY REVEILLE ARCHIVES
Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1963 – The flag on the Parade Ground flies at half-mast in respect for the late President John F. Kennedy.
HENRY L. GRIFFIN / The Associated Press
Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963 – Jacqueline Kennedy (left) kisses the casket of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, lying in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., accompanied by their daughter Caroline (right), kneeling alongside.
On The Scene
Baton Rouge man guarded JFK’s body By LAURA FURR
Special to The Daily Reveille Millions of Americans can instantly recall where they were, what they were doing and how they felt on Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. But Baton Rouge businessman Richard Lipsey’s recollection is unlike any other. At 1:30 p.m. on that fateful Friday, Lipsey remembers standing outside the home of Maj. Gen. Philip Wehle in Fort Meyer, Va., LIPSEY when the words, “The president has been shot” first roared over the military chauffeur’s car radio. Lipsey remembers bolting back toward the door of the house to tell Wehle the news, but by that time his boss was halfway to the car, ready to head to the office with Lipsey by his side.
But it’s the aftermath of the assassination that sets Lipsey apart. While the world was spinning around him in shock, the young lieutenant — only 23 at the time — was ordered to guard the body of the iconic president once Air Force One arrived in the capital that evening. For seven hours that night, Lipsey watched as doctors swarmed the medical examination room at Bethesda Naval Hospital while the president’s lifeless body lie only feet away from Lipsey at all times. The lieutenant admits he had never seen a dead man before. But that day, he was the only man to remain with the president’s corpse for the entirety of the night and until the following morning when it was prepped for burial. Around 4:30 a.m., after the technicians and FBI agents were finished scrutinizing and preparing the body, Lipsey closed Kennedy’s coffin. He then escorted it to the East Room of the White House where a private Mass was held for the
president’s wife, brother Robert and the West Wing staff. It is suspected that Lipsey was the last person to see the president in the flesh, as it remains unknown whether Jacqueline Kennedy opened the casket while alone in the East Room after the service. Despite the weight of Lipsey’s experience in those tumultuous days, he moved on with his life. Five weeks after the assassination, his tour in Washington ended. By the start of the new year, he had returned to Baton Rouge, resumed working in his family’s outdoors store, Steinberg’s, and started dating his current wife of 49 years. He reared two daughters with his wife Susan and went on to raise millions of dollars for Baton Rouge organizations, even founding the Tiger Athletic Foundation at LSU. “The transition in 1964 just worked out,” Lipsey said. “And I never looked back.”
GUARD, see page 15