Vermilion Parish residents recall where they were when they heard JFK was killed

Fifty years ago Friday, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. For many who were old enough to remember, it is a day they will never forget. Vermilion Parish residents recalled where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news President John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963.

Never will forget

I will always remember November 22, 1963. I was in the Civics Class of Mr. Aldon Soirez at Abbeville High School, which is now J.H. Williams, when news of the assassination came.
I remember having the feeling of shock and disbelief. Abbeville High School had made the football playoffs and there was excitement at the school prior to that news. I
I recall correctly, I, with many other students saw the team off as they went to play in Larose-Cutoff, and ultimately lost on that rainy night. The days that followed were sad and horrible. We had just purchased a black and white TV, our first at my home.
I remember the funeral of the President,and the sound of the drums in the procession has remained planted in my brain, as well as the salute of John, Jr. For several days the country seemed to be frozen in time. I went on and graduated from Abbeville High School in 1966 and went to Southeastern Christian College in Winchester, Kentucky, and was ordained minister while in college.
In 1969, I returned home to minister at the Abbeville Church of Christ. Soon after that when I was invited to become pastor of the Eastern Hills Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas. I had no idea at the time that I would connect history with that visit. Eastern Hills Church of Christ had six family members of the Spurlock family who were undertakers at Rest Land Funeral Home in Dallas, one of the largest in the country.
I discovered that the elder family member had actually been placed on standby for the preparation of the body of President Kennedy before the decision was made to fly him directly to Washington. The President was placed in a nearly $4,000 solid bronze casket that came from Vernon O’Neal Funeral Home in Dallas, and loaded on Air Force One. I had been to church camp in Deridder, Louisiana several times with the younger Spurlock son, who was also a worker at the funeral home.
He took my wife Vana and I on a tour of the funeral home, then took us on a tour to relive the path of the President on that fateful day in Dallas.
We followed the exact route the President took, past the book depository at Dealey Plaza, and on to Parkland Memorial Hospital. He walked us through the entire process. The visit ended with the viewing of a copy of the President’s death certificate. Of course, it was not the original, because the original had to be amended because the address of the President had been listed as 600 Pennsylvania Avenue instead of 1600, and his Social Security number had been omitted.
Francis Plaisance

Day of joy to sadness
I was stationed a Carswell, AFB in Fort Worth, Texas, where the Kennedy party landed and went to Dallas by car. We were all excused from work to see the President before he departed for Dallas. We were behind a roped off area, and the President and his wife made the walk inside the ropes, and we was about 5 feet from where he passed. This was a thrill to me, however, after his party departed I went to the barber shop, and while sitting in the barber chair, news came on the radio that Kennedy had been shot. My day went from a day of joy, to a day of sadness within a few minutes.

Raymond Gagne

Snowing the day I heard

I was a member of the United States Air Forvce and stationed in Great Falls, Montana. A fierce snow storm was happening and I was standing in my dormitory window, watching the snow storm. Being from Abbeville, I had never seen so much snow. A bulletin came over my little transistor radio that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. That afternoon I purchased the finals edition of the Great Falls, Montana newspaper and I have had that newspaper since then.”
Carlton Campbell

Not far from shooting

I had just turned 22 and was working on my first paying job as an actor in a recruiting film for the Air Force shooting at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, when JFK flew in the day before to visit nearby Brooks Medical Center on his way to Dallas. I slept badly that night and was napping after lunch when the director shook me awake saying, "They killed him. They shot the President in Dallas."
Lackland was sealed tight. We waited three days to finish the shoot, then I met my friend in Dallas who showed me Dealy Plaza, the grassy knoll, and repeated the rumors. We sat at Jack Ruby's bar where Oswald had been seen. Documented it all including the emotions, in my book about life in the 60's and the beginning of FM Rock radio "Riding on the Ether Express." It was all cause and effect.

David Pierce

Stayed glued to TV

The day that President Kennedy was assassinated we were living in Donaldsonville, LA. My late husband called me from school to tell me to turn on the TV, that President Kennedy had been shot. We watched TV as we found out more and more about Lee Harvey Oswald.
I can remember Mike calling me from the kitchen telling me that Henry Gogreve, an old friend of the Conlin family, was being interviewed on TV. It seems that Oswald used to go into Henry’s bar on Magazine St. in New Orleans & sit & drink a soda.
We stayed glued to the TV. A few years later when Orleans Parish DA Jim Garrison went after Clay Shaw who Garrison thought had something to do with the assassination, it was odd reading about 4 of Garrison’s assistant DAs that Mike went to grammar school with. I also had known Garrison’s wife in high school. It was also odd watching Kevin Costner play Jim Garrison in JFK. Costner was far better looking than Garrison.

Gloria Conlin

I cried when I heard

I vividly remember sitting in my desk in Mr. George Veazey’s 7th grade Geography class at what was then Abbeville High School and now is the site of J.H. Williams Middle School when we were told about President John F. Kennedy. I remember immediately feeling shocked and saddened as I started to cry and a having a sense of fear, and I remember praying!

Betty Cormier

Someone screamed the news
I was in uniform on leave from the United States Marine Corps, and was walking up to the USL Student Union when a young lady came running out of the door screaming that the President had been shot.
John T. Landry

Hearing the news in school

I was in the eighth grade at Maple wood Junior High in Sulphur. We were getting ready to go to lunch and it was announced on the PA system. School let out right after. We were old enough to understand what had happened. I remember sitting in front of the TV.”
Thomas Thompson

Learned of the news after work

I was living in Delaware and working for Dupont. I was working in our lab but I did not find out until I got home. We did not have cell phones.
Ken Taylor