Assassination seared into 90 year old women's memory

By Katie Rayner

                                                           

Union Station in Worcester, MA. 

On November 22, 1963, in his big blue Buick, Joseph Tancrell and his co-worker drove down Lincoln street heading toward Union Station in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was an ordinary Friday at the office he recalls, they were heading to the Station to meet with a new client. All of a sudden as they were about to turn onto Belmont street, Walter Cronkite’s voice came in loud a clear on the radio, “the unbelievable has happened, President Kennedy had been shot.” Joseph then turned the car around and headed back to State Mutual of America.

Upon entering the massive open office, the boss said “everyone go home.” So he quickly scurried the office looking for his wife. 

Connie, a short, elegant thirty-three year old, a secretary at State Mutual of America walked into the office around 12:30. “It was after lunch and I was on an errand to pick up checks.” She walked in and the girls asked did you hear? Did you hear that President Kennedy had been shot?

“No this can’t be true,” she thought, She went back into her office, went to the closet where they kept the filing cabinets, she then closed the door and cried. 

It wasn’t until Joseph came in and said let’s go that we got up and left the office that sad November day, she said. 

Main street in Uxbridge, MA 1940

As they got to her home on Seagrave Street in Uxbridge, and walked into her mother's house, they turned on the big-box television. The CBS news bulletin came on “It is not known yet if the president survived the attack yet.”

“The President has been shot, in his motorcade, on the way from downtown Dallas to the Airport. He slumped over into his wife Jackie Kennedy’s arms where she was heard saying “oh no,” it was as if it was on repeat, the broadcast kept replaying over and over again,” she said. 

There were three shots that rang through, and Governor Connally of Texas was also shot, as he fell into the bottom of the car according to the CBS report. 

As the CBS report continued to air, Walter Cronkite gave continuous coverage of what happened going over every possible detail, my grandmother said. 

Then at approximately 1 p.m. Central Time, in Dallas, Texas, it was announced that President John F. Kennedy died in Parkland Hospital in Texas with Jackie Kennedy by his side.

Cronkite's voice was calm and steady, he received a note from a coworker, paused took off his glasses for a moment and announced the President's death. Cronkite then took a deep breath and paused before he continued, giving a deep emphasis to the moment.The emotions were too much to handle, Connie said. The next morning when she got up, the plans for the funeral were underway. She so badly hoped to go to Washington to see the funeral, but instead had to stay glued to the television. 

On Sunday, they sat on the green outdated couch, side by side, watching Jackie Kennedy standing with her children. Then young John saluted the casket as it passed by, tears started to stream down Connie’s face.

About an hour before Kennedy’s funeral began, his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was being transferred from police headquarters in Dallas to the county jail. As America looked on, suddenly a man with a pistol shot and fired at Oswald at point blank range, by Jack Ruby a Dallas nightclub owner. Two hours later Oswald was pronounced dead at the same Parkland Hospital where Kennedy passed. 

John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie in Cape Cod 

            “President Kennedy was one of a kind,” Connie said. 

           Connie, about to turn 90 next week remembers how her mother and her used to drive down to Hyannis, and stand with the crowds of people to watch President Kennedy walk into church. Even though they would only ever see his back, “it was that important to me, and to so many people,” she said, just to see him in person. “Even though you didn’t know him personally he made himself personable to you,” she said.