Williamstown Seniors Remember JFK's Assassination
 Seniors at the Harper Center shared their experiences of learning about the death of President John F. Kennedy. |
"I was in my last pregnancy, and it was due any minute," Gorman recalled on Friday morning. "When I heard [about the shooting in Dallas] over the radio, I called the doctor and I said, 'Did you hear the news?' And he said, 'No.'
"[After I told him] he said, 'You get yourself down here right now.' I said, 'What for?' And he said, 'Come down.' So I did ... and he examined me and he said, 'You sit over there in that chair and don't move.'
"He eventually brought me to the hospital, and my baby was born a half hour later."
Gorman shared the story Friday morning at the Harper Center of her daughter's birth. She was one of about a dozen senior citizens who answered a call from the Williamstown Historical Museum to come share their recollections about the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Kennedy was elected the 35th president in 1960. The former Massachusetts U.S. senator was the youngest to have been elected president, as well as the first Catholic and the first born in the 20th century. He was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, at Dealy Plaza in Dallas.
Museum director Sarah Currie was on hand to tape the attendees reminiscences, which will be kept in the WHM's permanent oral history collection.
Williamstown Council on Aging Director Brian O'Grady facilitated the discussion, which opened with each participant sharing his or her memory of Nov. 20, 1963, and spun into more general reflections on the Kennedy family and the aftermath of the tragic events in Dallas.
Renate Shafer's memory of that day as one that began simply and happily.
"The children were jumping in piles of leaves on the lawn," she said. "It was a nice day, that day. It was warm and sunny. They didn't even need a jacket."
After the news broke, Shafer, like the rest of the nation, was in shock.
"It felt like you were in limbo," she said. "It was like, 'Now what?' "
Most of the participants at Friday's discussion were living in Northern Berkshire County in 1963. Dot Sweet brought a different perspective.
"I was living in California at the time, and I was driving down Sherman Way," she said. "When the news came over the radio, every car stopped. It's a wonder we didn't have a pile-up.
"I'll never forget it."
Life also stood still in Williamstown — for a few moments or for an afternoon, depending on where you were.
Margaret Odell was working in a factory on Water Street.
"The first I knew, I heard it over the loudspeaker in the plant," she said. "There was dead silence for a moment. And then we all went back to work."
On the other hand, Richard Pierce had a different experience working in his office on Spring Street.
"For the balance of the afternoon, Spring Street closed up shop," he said. "That evening, there was a memorial service for the president at Thompson Chapel."
After the discussion wrapped up, Linnea Nelson said it was an appropriate way to mark the occasion.
"It's great that they had this event," she said. "It's cathartic."
"It's one of those events that seared itself into the minds of the people who were around at that time," O'Grady said.
Tags: COA, Kennedy, recollections,
