For Years After Nov 22,1963, I Would Wake in a Cold Sweat, Convinced That Something I Had Done Had Killed JFK

For years after Nov 22,1963, I would wake in a cold sweat, convinced that something I had done had killed JFK.

r7Z- By Elizabeth Forsling Harris

,47■■ ".'

Texas Gov. John Connally tried to prevent a motorcade, but 1F11, In Dallas with Jackie, wanted to be seen by as many Texans as possible.

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS

20071 Mail call: It's absolutely historical 8 Can you imagine how it feels CRITIC AT LARGE/BY RICHARD COHEN to fear you were somehow Should private lives be public domain? 13 responsible for John F. 1 STREET Kennedy's death? Selected short subjects: Home again, unnaturally 15 By Elizabeth Forsling Harris • The eighth deadly sin - Too real life

DREAM MACHINES/BY BROCK YATES Drive an ark and feel safe 45 Richard Kelly has found the DINING/ BY PHYLLIS C. RICHMAN Bethesda's new Cajun cafe secret to training dogs: 49 training their masters. Now THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE PUZZLE/BY LOUIS BARON if he could just master those Wordplay 58 lessons in his own life GROUPS/PHOTOGRAPH BY NEAL SLAVIN By Jeanne Marie Laskas They gather together 64

Solution to last turek's puzzle on page 46 A Washington Life: Time 11/X AletiNniak; ktWah CUMA4/1/ was when pork chops were 15 cents a pound and a man tu_ -lade who played a mean guitar could live like a king on $90 a month in D.C. By Fleming V. Briscoe As told to Jill Nelson

NOVEMBER 20, 19*8 3

It teasiyingtenPost. inagayine

LOOKING BACK irr SORROW

FOR 25 YEARS, the woman who planned the last day of John F. Kennedy's life has been silent. This is her story.

BY ELIZABETH FORSLING HARRIS

24 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE THE JUBILANT ARRIVAL AT LOVE FIELD .5.4 1144r/ii:en .91.t i'4kt,()-(2.. j.jr d(ii) t L /7 ,445),/,p 7_7F-tr, OR YEARS AFTER NOV. 22, 1963, 1 WOULD WAKE Like Moyers, I was familiar enough with Texas politics to in a cold sweat, convinced that something I had want to avoid spurious encounters. The local political atmos- done, or had not done, had killed John F. Kennedy. phere created by the pending Kennedy visit was rancorous, a F His was only supposed to be a three-hour stay in condition brought on by the infighting between the liberal and Dallas. But still, there were so many details for that the conservative wings of the Texas Democratic Party. Most of brief visit—details that I personally was responsible for. And I the many people I knew in Dallas took their politics very seri- would afterward wake in horror to think that his death was the ously; I did not want to jeopardize my new line of work by un- result of something I had done, in the plans that were made, in duly antagonizing some of my more conservative friends for the arrangements that were hammered out, in the schedule what seemed to be a gratuitous political favor. So I refused that was so carefully gone over, minute by minute. The bubble- Moyers. At first. .top. The publicity. The route maps of his motorcade through However, I did offer to give him a written rundown on the the city. Everyone remembers where they were on that tragic situation in Dallas pertinent to Kennedy's scheduled three-hour day in history, but I was there and can still recall it now, stay—a sort of Who's Who and What's What of the city. It took in every detail. 17 typewritten pages to spell out the convoluted details. The next day, Moyers flew down on the "mail plane," a gov- DURING THE YEARS I LIVED IN DALLAS, I HAD COME TO KNOW ernment aircraft dispatched daily to take documents and mail to John Kennedy well. He, on the Vice President Johnson when other hand, did not know me at he was in residence at his Tex- all. In 1956, 1 had worked in as ranch. Moyers stopped those frantic final hours at the overnight in Dallas to pick up convention to help him get the my memo and talk over the nomination for vice president whole situation and then went over Estes Kefauver. Until NOBODY USED on to Austin, the state capital, 1960, I ran "Kennedy errands" from which he would operate for Democratic National Chair- THE WORD for the next seven days. man Paul Butler, whose fer- vent but necessarily confiden- "ASSASSINATION," THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAD tial aim was to secure the pres- only begun to emerge in Tex- idential nomination for Ken- NOR DID ANY as, and in 1963 the major po- nedy. In 1960, I helped to set litical figures were Democrat- up the Citizens for Ken- OF LIS THINKOF ic: Gov. John Connally, conser- nedy/Johnson committee in vative; Sen. Ralph Yarborough, Dallas County. In January THATAWFUL liberal; and Vice President 1961, I worked on the inaugu- Johnson, officially neutral, but ral preparations and struggled POSSIBILITY now, as Kennedy's man, with a to be sure that the five inau- loyalty unofficially suspect in gural balls went off as sched- both camps. uled. As senators, and even ear- In 1961, 1 went to work at lier, Johnson and Yarborough to, the Peace Corps, where I met had been arch-enemies; John- Bill Moyers. He had come to son's elevation to the vice Washington from Texas.as one presidency changed nothing. of Sen. Lyndon Johnson's Connally and Yarborough were brightest staffers. But in 1961, natural antagonists, given Con- he had somehow managed to extricate himself from Johnson's nally's longtime service as Johnson's chief lieutenant, a status grasp and joined President Kennedy's perhaps most provocative extended by Connally's boisterously declared conservative pos- program. He became deputy director, and I was the only rank- ture. ing female in the hierarchy. The only person who had been able to keep these three glad- In 1963, I moved back to my home in Dallas with the inten- iators in some semblance of behavioral order was Sam Rayburn, tion of resuming a successful business career. speaker of the House, but Rayburn had died in 1961. His Moyers, only 29 but already a veteran of politics, reached me charges were on their own, scarcely the better for it. at home on the afternoon of November 13, 1963. He had just By mid-November of 1963, the competition between the two gotten back from the White House. He was excited and in a hur- factions was beginning to threaten the success of the Kennedy ry. President Kennedy had asked him, indeed ordered him, to go trip. Traditionally, when a president visits one of the 50 states, to Texas and smooth the way for an upcoming trip to San An- the terms of the visit are set by the White House, with details tonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin. In just eight days, filled in by the local party leaders. Not necessarily, however, in Air Force One would take off on the trip during which Kennedy Texas. Connally wanted the Kennedy trip run the Connally way. intended to raise both votes and money for his 1964 presidential Kennedy had expressed a desire to be heard by as many people campaign. Would I help with the preparations in Dallas? as possible who had voted against him in 1960 and seen by as

26 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE many as possible, no matter how they had voted. Connally was to the pre-dinner reception at the governor's mansion in Austin; up for reelection himself in 1964, and the last thing he wanted and demanding to be seated at the head table for the dinner was to be perceived as openly allied with John Kennedy. Par- with Kennedy. ticularly, he didn't want to be seen as parading Kennedy For his part, Connally was protesting the motorcades, nota- through Texas on a vote-getting expedition. Still, he didn't want bly the one in ultra-conservative, pro-Connally Dallas; claiming to be seen without his president either. total innocence in regard to the "mix-up" in the distribution of So Connally came up with a plan to have it both ways. There tickets; regretting that his wife, Nellie, had refused to extend to would be, he suggested to Kennedy, "political" events. And then Yarborough an invitation to the reception and asking just what there would be "non-political" events. Austin. as the state cap- was a man to do in a situation like that; readying himself with ital, was the one city in which liberals and conservatives were Mrs. Connally to escort the president and Mrs. Kennedy accustomed to meeting together. It was Austin that Connally through the five Texas cities. Indeed, he was to cite the chose for the one "political" event—a fund-raiser, with the mon- presence of the ladies as one of his chief objections to motor- ey from the sale of tickets to be split between the state organ- cades, notorious as the open cars were for mussing the ladies' ization and the Democratic National Committee. Elsewhere, the hairdos. sponsors would be "non-political," and the tickets would be "invitations" handed out by the sponsor hosts of each event. Spe- AND WHAT OF MOYERS? BY THE TIME HE ARRIVED IN AUSTIN cifically, Connally planned for on Friday, Nov. 15, the Dem- Kennedy to visit the School of ocratic liberals were in full Aerospace Medicine at Brooks throat. Surely it was they who Air Force Base near San An- had given Kennedy the 46,000- a tonio on Nov. 21, where Ken- vote plurality by which he nedy would make a speech and squeezed Texas into the elec- dedicate six new buildings. In toral column. So how come Houston, Kennedy would star they were virtually excluded at the testimonial dinner for from the distribution of tickets Rep. Albert Thomas, whose to the "non-political" events for support of Kennedy earned "their" president? Houston what was to be known Moyers called me again in as the Johnson Space Center. Dallas on Saturday afternoon On Friday, Nov. 22, the Fort and asked if I would do him just Worth Chamber of Commerce one small favor. Could I, on would host a breakfast. After- Sunday morning, run down to ward, the three-hour stop in see this one fellow whom Mo- Dallas would center on a lunch- yers assured me I knew better eon sponsored by the Dallas than anyone else, and try to Citizens' Council. get him to help a little on the On paper, it looked great. In ticket situation? Wouldn't take every city except Austin, the but a minute. But it surely sponsoring organizations were would be of great help, to do made up of Connally partisans. THE MOTORCADE FOLLOWS that one little thing for the They were, therefore, the pea ITS WELL-PUBLICIZED ROUTE president. ple who could be presumed to Lea)-Le. tufi goal/1 v....- The man Moyers wanted have voted against Kennedy. .4 D alter Ike– riti eZ")441 me to see was Sam Bloom. I The only major change the knew him well. Tall, generous White House made was to insist on a motorcade in every city. in girth and usually gentle of manner, Bloom ran the Bloom Ad- Kennedy wanted to see and be seen by as big a public as pos- vertising Agency, In the skillful hands of Sam's son, Robert, it sible, and he would have Mrs. Kennedy in the car, seated beside has since grown into the largest independent agency in the him—the best attraction yet. United States. But in 1963, while it earned a living for the The vice president, meanwhile, did not cotton to Kennedy's Bloom family, the agency was also Sam's means of playing a corning to Texas in the first place. It was too easy for Kennedy major role in the management of the city of Dallas. to observe what little influence Johnson now had in his own Dallas was run by the Dallas Citizens' Council, a group or- state. Nor did he take kindly to Connally's hustling all the press ganized by a bank president and described in the book Dallas attention. So he was holed up at his ranch, waiting to join the Public and Private by Warren Leslie as "a collection of dollars official party when it landed in San Antonio. represented by men." Membership was composed of 100 or To top off the political squabbling, Yarborough was loudly more CEOs. Specifically excluded were proxies, scholars, doc- refusing to ride in the motorcades with the vice president, the tors, clergymen, professors or others who had to ask permis- seat political protocol had dealt him; declaiming the injustice of sion to spend a corporate dollar, cutting the flow of "non-political" invitations to his liberal sup- At the time of Kennedy's visit, those in charge included Sam porters; protesting Connally's failure to invite his wife and him Bloom.

0 1967 Lean CO.. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NOVEMBER '20, 1996 27 What those men, or their predecessors, decided had enabled arrived in Dallas on November 8, and by the time we met he the council to do much to finance the city's improvements from had done the preliminary work of indoctrinating the police de- airports to art museums. And acting through its subsidiary, the partment and host committee (via the ubiquitous Bloom), Citizens' Charter Association, they also nominated and financed checking out the two possible luncheon sites and the alternative most of the candidates for the City Council, which in turn routes from the airport. He even had to arrange for the motor- elected the mayor. cade cars through a local dealer. All told, it was a heavy assign- Whenever Citizens' Council policies needed public enuncia- ment for one man. tion, the Bloom Agency did the job. So it was that when Con- Sunday night, Lawson and I had dinner. He brought me up to nally asked his friends to host a luncheon for President Ken- speed on all details of the three hours Kennedy would be in Dal- nedy, the Bloom agency undertook the arrangements—includ- las on Friday. I learned that the next morning he would reexam- ing the distribution of invitations. ine the two potential sites for the luncheon and send the details This was the problem Moyers wanted me to discuss with back to the White House for final selection. If it were to be the Sam. The Dallas liberal Democrats were outraged at being Trade Mart, the motorcade would follow the usual parade route short-changed on invitations; Yarborough was protesting from from the airport through town. There was not time for Lawson Washington, and the conservative media loved the story. At a to check each building along the route, nor was that expected. minimum, the job was to dampen the din. I learned, too, at dinner that Kennedy disliked the bubble-top Bloom was not surprised to on the big blue Lincoln that see me walk into his office, was used for parades and flown even on a Sunday morning. in ahead as needed. At the Ten years earlier, I had left slightest opportunity, he would New York for Dallas, a city in order that the top be removed. which I knew not a soul. I had (Not until this year did I learn had a successful career in New TEARS STREAMED that the top kept out only rain York, first as an editor for and wind. It was not designed Newsweek and then as direc- DOWN THE FACE to stop or even deflect a bul- tor of talent and creative pro- let.) And I smiled at the not- gramming at ABC television. OF SECRET very-new news that the pres- was sure finding work in Dallas ident liked to stop his motor- was a mere matter of asking. SERVICE AGENT cades along the route and get Hardly. The city had little out to shake hands, particularly interest in an expatriate New WIN LAWSON AS with children. Yorker who was also a female We also talked about the looking to do a man's work. THE PRESIDENT'S dark cloud of conservatism that Sam Bloom, however, became hung over Dallas—specifically, a mentor. One of the directions CORTEGE PASSED. the "Johnson episode" of No- in which he steered me was vember 1960 and the "Adlai ' political. I was soon working on Stevenson incident" a little Yarborough's first gubernato- more than a month earlier. rial campaign, then doing jobs Less than a week before for Johnson and Rayburn. election day in 1960, vice pres- If Sam was not surprised to idential candidate Lyndon see me, he certainly was not Johnson and his wife, Lady happy when I told him my mis- Bird, came to Dallas from a sion. "Goddarn it," he yelled. campaign appearance in Fort I'm sick and tired of those people in Washington sending one Worth. He was speaking at a luncheon in one downtown hotel guy after another in here claiming they are working for the and staying at another hotel across the street. White House. They come in, look around and then disappear. All By coincidence, Republican women had staged a Tag Day in they want to do is put their noses in our business and get tickets. the same area. Turned out in fetching red and white uniforms, a I'm sick of hearing about tickets. Now what do you want?" number of young socialite women were at the same hotel cor- At that moment, I changed my mind. I would spend the rest ner, putting tags in the lapels of passing businessmen in return of that day and the 41/2 days thereafter working to make a suc- for a contribution to the Nixon/Lodge ticket. cessful trip. To this day, f have rued that moment when I The unexpected had occurred. Bruce Alger, a Republican can- changed my mind and became ipso facto the political advance didate for Congress, had arrived at the same corner and, real- man for the Dallas leg of the trip. izing that the Johnsons were on their way to the hotel, had grabbed a Republican placard and led the ladies there. All this SAM INTRODUCED ME TO THE MAJOR MEMBER OF THE PLAN- noise and pulchritude attracted the boozy burns who hung out on ning team, the Secret Service advance man, Winston Lawson, a nearby Bowery-like street. They enthusiastically joined the In Dallas, as in all cities, Lawson's main resource was the local crowd. police department, headed by Chief Jesse Curry. Lawson had When Johnson undertook to walk Mrs. Johnson across the

'1• 28 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE

a.. • .1 ti •• • street to the luncheon, I offered to get him a bullhorn to work Dallas' leaders, admonishing the citizens to avoid further em- his way through the crowd. barrassment to the city by either word or action. The two Dal- "No," he said. "I don't need a bullhorn to walk my lady across las newspapers shared the task of publicizing the statements, a Dallas street." adding their own editorial advice. The Johnsons were severely jostled, and somewhere along For my part, later in the week, I put up a stiff argument to the way, somebody spat on Mrs. Johnson. Chief Curry's "Black Maria" plan. A Black Maria is a police de- When Johnson learned that the episode had been filmed by an partment van used to haul prisoners between jails. Curry NBC cameraman and would be used on the network news, he wanted to park one at every corner along the route where the altered the line a little. For the four days remaining in the cam- motorcade would change direction. I was very concerned that paign down through the heart of Texas, the senator would the TV cameras would pick up the black vans, making it look as blame Bruce Alger and Richard Nixon for making it impossible if Kennedy were so unpopular in Dallas he had to be guarded for "a man to walk his lady across a Dallas street without being literally at every turn. It smelled to me of "police state," and I spat upon." didn't want the president charged by some radical of either the There are a lot of people, including me, who think that ep- right or left with invoking same. The Black Marias were not on isode and Johnson's adroit use of it earned much if not all of the the street that Friday. 46,000-vote plurality. Alger won. But Nixon lost. On Tuesday, there was a meeting with the governor for a The second incident oc- final review of his plans for curred in October 1963. U.N. Friday, Nov. 22. Sam Bloom Ambassador Adlai Stevenson came to report on his activities

had come to Dallas to make a - together with a representative speech on United Nations Day. from the Citizens' Council. On the way out of the hall, a Lawson was late getting there woman with an anti-U.N. plac- and missed the fireworks: Con- ard pushed her way through a nally was still trying to cancel small but jeering crowd as the Dallas motorcade. He was Stevenson neared and the plac- adamant that Kennedy be ta- ard hit him. She would claim it ken directly to the luncheon was an accident. Stanley Mar- from the airport. Clearly he did cus, the merchant prince of not want to encourage the Dal- Neiman Marcus, and one of las voters to be overexposed to the few liberals on the Citizens' the Kennedys and their Council, was escorting Steven- charms. son. The incident so unnerved Connally was so vociferous him that he was moved to sug- to me that I was moved to call gest that Kennedy cancel his Moyers who was in touch with trip. Stevenson suggested the Kenneth O'Donnell at the same. White House. I knew that The cumulative effect of O'Donnell, who was Kennedy's these events and the attendant appointments secretary and national media coverage was to THE FUNERAL CORTEGE overseer of political activities make the city fathers sick with CROSSES MEMORIAL BRIDGE including the Texas trip, was embarrassment, bestow the releasing the route that day, title of "Dallas Disgrace" on the and that he had, in fact, or- conservative factions, horrify dered that we have a motor- the libe and put a nervous law enforcement forccla vottui 4frca de. Still, Connally, whom I'd known for eight years or so, was alert. Qi.A3 si4wi a very impressive fellow, and Bloom and the Citizens' Council ft-04, wanted to please him. LAWSON, CHIEF CURRY, SAM BLOOM AND I WORRIED ABOUT "The president is not coming down," O'Donnell told Moyers, another embarrassment on November 22. Using the files, Cur- "to be hidden under a bushel basket. Otherwise, we can do it ry's men located all of the known conservative troublemakers in from here by television." the Dallas area, and saw to it that each was told to stay at home That settled that. n November 22—under police surveillance if not formal guard. There was still the matter of publicity. Although the route The city pushed through a quick ordinance authorizing arrest had been described in detail as early as November 15 by the for anyone threatening the president with a placard or a vocal Dallas Times Herald's well-informed Washington correspon- disturbance. The purpose of this action was to prevent more dent, I still wanted the two Dallas papers to run maps of the "embarrassment." Nobody used the word "assassination," nor, I route. It was the best way, I thought, to encourage a large turn- believe, did any of us ever think specifically of that awful pos- out to see the Kennedys. The maps ran on Thursday afternoon sibility. in the Herald and on Friday morning in the News. Bloom and his staff worked hard to gather statements from I was pleased. sr\ '^-'4(,L. 014(9, ts 1 INCL, (Aik \e\■IN L'INA„AANNITIr%

BET1MANN NEWSBNOTOS NOVEMBER 20, 1989 29 DURING THE WEEK, I SPENT A GOOD DEAL OF TIME WITH Lawson, as we checked out the thousand details that would as- on the ground and unloading, and I moved over to say hello to sure a safe and successful trip. some friends who were on it. I didn't show it, I thought, but I I had come to have enormous admiration for Lawson. At 35, was as nervous as the mother of the bride. he had had only five years' experience in the Secret Service. And then, there it was, Air Force One, wheels down, touch- But his dedication, his thoroughness and his niceness made one ing the runway. Watching that sight when the president is feel that the president was in excellent hands. aboard is a wonderful experience. I get tears in my eyes still, 4. The Secret Service manual dictates that the agents be ready just seeing it on television. That day, my heart almost burst to put their bodies between the threat of danger and the pres- with pride. ident. It is a unique job requirement. One knew that Lawson There was a big crowd at the airport, far larger than we had would not hesitate. anticipated, and the welcomers hung over the fence, screaming This fall, Win told me about an earlier trip he had planned for with glee as the smiling Kennedys moved down the ramp. The Kennedy, this one to Niagara Falls where Lawson had family president and Mrs. Kennedy made a beeline for the fence. Ken who were invited to attend the event. As the president passed O'Donnell, Dave Powers, the president's close friend and political the Lawson relatives, the agent escorting Kennedy paused and factotum, and Lawrence O'Brien, then Kennedy's assistant for said, "Mr. President, this is Lawson's family." congressional liaison, had been scheduled to ride with me on the Kennedy smiled, shook so-called VIP bus in the motorcade. But, frisky as young goats, hands and said, "Well, he must they jumped into seats in the be doing a good job. Nobody's open Secret Service car that shot me yet." would tail the president as closely as possible. I frowned. I IT WAS RAINING FRIDAY didn't like script changes. Mal- morning, November 22. A slow AT THE HOSPITAL, colm Kilduff, the assistant press drizzle. That meant the bubble- secretary, got in the pool re- top. THE MAYOR porters' car that followed the I drove to the airport, Secret Service car behind the parked my car and went to a president. revamped Quonset but at the REACHED Then the two cars carrying airport near where Air Force the Texas congressmen swung One would land. The local wel- OBIT TO around in front of my bus be- coming party, including Mayor fore we started. There was no Earle Cabell and his wife, Eliz- COMFORT ME. point in fussing. Relax and en- abeth, were waiting there. Al- "DON'T WORRY joy the ride. though the luncheon commit- The Johnsons got in their tee had flown in 5,000 yellow car, where they were finally roses from California to dec- HE'LL RECOVER'' joined by Sen. Yarborough. orate the Trade Mart, Mrs. The president himself had or- Cabell boasted a bouquet of dered Yarborough to-stop- Texas red roses that she acting-like-a-spoiled-child-and- planned to give Mrs. Kennedy. get-in-the-car-with-Lyndon, or Everybody in the but seemed words to that effect. Yarbo- happy. rough was smiling and waving When I moved out on the before the car started. The tarmac, Lawson came up to vice president was still glum. me. He had neglected to get himself a little brown lapel pin that Maybe more so. we had had made to identify those with close access to the pres- Riding with me were, among others, the president's doctor, idential party, a routine procedure on trips like this. "Could I Rear Adm. George Burkley; Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lin- have yours?" he said. Because I was going in the back door of coln; Mrs. Kennedy's secretary, Mary Gallagher, and her press the Trade Mart, I wouldn't really need it. secretary, Pamela Turnure; U.S. Attorney Barefoot Sanders; Air Force One was starting its engines at the Fort Worth Jack Valenti, acting as a walking tape recorder, who had been airport for the 30-mile flight to Dallas. Overhead, the clouds brought along from Houston by Johnson and equipped to record were breaking, and suddenly the sun shone through. Hurray, I whatever the vice president had to say that day; Liz Carpenter, said to Forrest Sorrels, the director of the regional Secret Ser- a close friend and longtime member of the Johnson staff; and vice office. Let's get the bubble-top off. Luther Holcombe, a Methodist minister who was to deliver the It was years before I knew that Lawson had already given luncheon benediction. that order. Despite what seemed to me to be rampant confusion, we Air Force Two with Vice President and Mrs. Johnson and actually got away from the airport on time at 11:35. Lunch was their party landed. I met the Johnsons and walked them over to set up for 12:30 at the Trade Mart, where nearly 2,000 people where the Air Force One ramp was set up. The press plane was were beginning to arrive to find their seats. continued on page 52

30 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE LOOKING ted a pay phone on the wall and called the on the floor. The doors were open. Liz RACK in city desk at the Dallas News. Yes, the Carpenter and Jack Valenti disappeared SORROW president was being taken to Parkland into the building, gone to look for the Hospital. Johnsons, I guessed. My concern was for Later I would learn that Dr. Burldey the three women on the Kennedy staff. continued from page 30 had immediately left, found a taxi and Mrs. Kennedy would need them. The crowds were big, the downtown headed for Parkland. Where the others I was not unfamiliar with Parkland, streets were packed and the Texans were had gone I never quite knew, but I was having been to a number of meetings with warm and cheering and obviously just left with Evelyn Lincoln, Mary Gallagher, the director and the staff on the develop- very glad to see the Kennedys. Pamela Turnure, Liz Carpenter and Jack ment of the medical complex of which it My bus was too far behind the presi- Valenti. was the core. So I took the women up to dential car to hear the shots. But I saw As a group we moved outside, auto- the executive offices. In the halls, all was the car speed up and assured Mrs. Lin- matically, blindly, toward the parking lot chaos. Hospital care had simply come to a coln, who seemed concerned, that they and the entrance to the highway. We had stop. Doctors, nurses, patients, orderlies were just trying to make up the five to find transportation. The next day my lined the halls. Scared. Curious. Very po- minutes we were now behind time. Unlike left arm was badly bruised. Only then did lite to us. Finally, I asked the women to the press buses, our bus pulled up to the I realize that Liz had beat on me as hard sit down while I tried to find where the back door of the Trade Mart, where I as she could. "Do something. Do some- president was. Heading for the emergen- would take the guests through the kitch- thing," she kept saying. cy area, I spotted Gen. Godfrey McHugh, en to the seats that had been saved for us. Suddenly a Texas Ranger appeared, the president's Air Force aide, a hand- As we got to the door, a frazzled man walking toward us. His name tag read some man resplendent in his blue uni- pushed by us on the way out saying, The "Goodfellow," I remember. He had his form. We returned to Mrs. Lincoln and president has been shot. The president own car there. He would take us. The six Mrs. Kennedy's two staff women and to- has been shot." of us. The other women sat in the back. I gether proceeded to the emergency suite Then we couldn't get in. I needed the sat on Valenti's lap in the front, my head where the occupants of the presidential brown lapel pin I had given to Win Law- pressed against the windshield. Goodfel- and vice presidential cars and their Secret son. The Dallas policeman on the door low's uniform got us through the block- Service escorts were. Mayor Cabell was had been told to accept no other identi- ades the police were setting up to manage also in the suite. fication. Not even Mrs. Lincoln's White the heavy traffic already moving toward Mrs. Kennedy was seated on a folding House pass. Parkland. Nobody said anything. Not a chair just outside Trauma Room 1, into What had that man meant? Shot? The word. which the best doctors at the hospital policeman knew nothing. I feared that At Parkland, the blue Lincoln sat were crowding. Gov. Connally was in Mrs. Lincoln would collapse. Then I spot- where it had stopped. The red roses were Trauma Room 2, but I have no recollec-

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12 HOUR SALE tion at all where Mrs. Connally was. The MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21st, 9 AM to 9 PM Secret Service had hustled the Johnsons into a secluded area where the vice president could be heavily guarded. McHugh Dan Howard's and I got three chairs and put them behind Mrs. Kennedy for Evelyn Lincoln, Mary Gallagher and Pamela Turnure. Maternity Mrs. Kennedy's pink suit was splashed with dried blood. She sat unmoving. She did not acknowledge the presence of the Factory three women. I noticed that she seemed to be wearing printed gloves. How FALLS strange, it seemed to me, in one with 6/.11, III ■11.1N1. Ro Ti',)). ,-,1 11/10., such taste in clothes. And then I realized ANNIE. NEY. 75116 LEFL•111 RI. PIM. !ITT. 71 SPRINGPIEI.II PLAZA lue.12.11 that they were white gloves, "printed" I 1.1aLr1 with a substance that even then I knew BETIIESDA BURTONSVILLE Iltr III AGtltNQUARE BURITINNYILIAL CRIYMING all IF CTN. was the blood and gore from a dreadful 111,111\1i 0.11:011EitY MALL INTEILNECTION OF IIT la A RT wound. For the first time, I understood ACROSS FROM GIANT Pflf ,rriticr: 101/.121•11101 what the phrase "and then her heart froze" meant. ALL CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED Dave Powers stood by Mrs. Kennedy, M.W. 10.6; THURS. & FRI. 10-9 often with his hand resting gently on her SAT. 10-6; SUN. 12.5 shoulder. 'suggested retail on selected items . Nobody said much. O'Donnell and O'Brien were simply out of it. They could Now Available! Gitano Snap-to-Fit corduroy pants — $18.00 not talk. The manufacturer that sold it's designs to fine maternity boutiques and dept. Loud, anguished sobs came from Yar- stores nationwide, now brings direct-to-you savings of 25%-50% daily! borough. He was totally consumed with grief, and with something like fear. No- body knew then just how badly the president had been hurt. But Yarborough C L seemed to feel there had been a transi- SAVE 1343CTOR tion. He and I were not very friendly, but 4"_4 1 went over to him and pulled his head 30-60% CUSTOM CLOSET ay down on my shoulder, as one would a ter- " hn. INTERIORS FALL 40, „11 rified child. I meant to ease his pain. . SWEATERS 4--, "Tell him do anything," he kept saying. : "Tell him I'll do anything." I finally real- =...—' i1111 ..r.. .._ ized he meant Johnson. Yarborough's II longtime political enemy had become— ! (••=■1 1 was it possible?—his president. I tried to •At‘FtW's; .yotill•.?:V imr assure him that John Kennedy was still . and an excluslv.e.:. BROCHURE L.IsoiectIcinaf 4._k7LC:TORY.111 suowRno living. ,fladles' anti FREE IN-HOME CONSULTATIONS Win Lawson was in a supervisory room men's fall sv;eaters': - MD. DC. 297.9350 VA 922.4547 at a desk that overlooked the waiting area .:1 -In a variety of • 51322 MARY REA CLINTON. MU.20735 where we sat. He was a stricken man go- ;styles and rabrice; ing about the work, whatever it was, that to wools-ell at had be done. He beckoned to me and :prices you'll fall PROTECT asked if I would please find his luggage. in love with! Warr Treasured Thread Table Top voth CUSTOM FIT He hated to bother me, but the bags had Our everyday price Is ILL,-,4-a-J.L:1' TABLE PADS been checked to Washington on a 4 p.m. always 30-60% oft! • WASHABLE TOP SALE AB LOW AS commercial flight. Win knew he would not • INSULATED FELT THIS WEER $3995 be on that flight. Part of his job was to • HEAT RESISTANT ONLY! RW's My Size Tabs UT stay in Dallas and try to find the person lolayBOM SWEATER OUTLET Thrs Lew Nee who had committed this awful crime. We Never Discount Our Quality I handled it by phone. Everybody

ALEXANDRIA wanted to help. To do something. To do Shaped Foschase 751-5686 anything. WOODBRIDGE While I stood in the emergency area, Potomac Mils 690-6537 waiting, 1 saw Dr. Kemp Clark come out FAIRFAX WASHINGTON TABLE PAD CO. Fair CM/ Ma 978-1105 of Trauma 1. A tall man, Clark was the yr. 'Am, elect 627-6868 chief neurologist at Parkland. I watched THE AREAS ONLY SWEATER FACTORY OUTLET 11211 CAW 11111.0111,4,51111F 114114,1V i...611..a wen*, r1101r41111111ff Marry 5,w GLIM il.S ,A.41YOun CAI IOW kJ Me. wialta him walk over to Mrs. Kennedy, bend

54 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE LOOKING BACK in SORROW

down and say a few words. Nothing clicked in my head. Clark walked over to me. "How badly was he hurt?" I asked. "It was lethal," Clark said. Ordinarily, I know the meaning of the word lethal. Not then. "What does that mean?" I asked Clark. "It means the president is dead." In my hands I was holding a pair of beige, cloth gloves, and I twisted them so hard I split the seams in both. Then I turned away and started to cry. Earle Ca bell reached out to comfort me. "Don't cry," he said. "He'll recover." Which is how the mayor heard that the city and the country had lost their president. "It's a tragic day," Cabell said. "A tragic day— Sunday, November 27: for Dallas and for the world." Afterward, when the coffin had left the hospital, I helped the Texas congressional A DIFFERENT delegation get itself organized into cars and on the way to Washington on Air Force Two. Then I got back into my own DEAVER car and found the VIP bus. As originally What is it like to be the daughter of on the task of helping him get instructed, the driver had gone to the airport from the Trade Mart, running Michael Deaver—image maker, sober. Then came the ordeal of his almost empty. There were still various alcoholic and highest-ranking indictment, conviction and briefcases, sweaters, coats, books belong- ing to the Washington VIPs. "Could you Reagan administration official to sentencing for perjury. get these back to Washington?" I asked be convicted of a aime? In next week's cover story, the the American Airlines airport manager. Not only would he transport them, he At 10, Amanda Deaver was 18-year-old Brown University said, but he would see that they were uprooted from her California freshman, talks candidly and hand-delivered to each owner. Finally, I home, moved to Washington and openly about her father, herself drove to the home of some close friends in Dallas and went into a state of shock rarely saw her father for the and her family's transformation. from which I did not fully emerge for sev- next several years. At 16, she took eral days. Two months later, I gave up my apartment in Dallas and moved back to Washington. EPILOGUE Win Lawson and I met again in Wash- ington this fall, 25 years later. Lawson is deeply loyal to the Secret Service, which, he feels, treated him with unspoken but great sensitivity. "They never transferred me out of Washington,' he says. And they knew fin 1963] how to treat me. Right after I got people kros home, they kept me working. Not a day off. Even on the day of the funeral, I was de• tailed to the Memorial Bridge." Lawson stood there on duty with tears streaming lirrr Palk) down his face as the president's cortege hr. 04Ergnotl En passed swift nnE concept Ir 4 qualEy nthehlfrn WI All 444 He retired from the Secret Service in — May c. , 044.4:4E 044 11441 1982 (to help care for a father with Alzhei- VI 4100 Ulan 15 minutes vain n0 Isbaa. mer's disease). And although he has not forgotten Dallas, he doesn't like to talk $205 Queen $230 King $280 ALEXANDRIA about it. r100 Kap Straw, Va. NOCII • • P4C4494d b 8 in your MN' (1031 5198005 90114101144 :bows • • clInan4ni 1443143,1 inntlann We ship UPS. SOnd naranned n414 • • hnnilbennis and rocInna Elizabeth Forsling Harris, formerly a TV RoccoLLE executive and publisher, is now at work on magi RncM.IM Piker, M. Selection Mattresses .a..1 $80 to $470 taon 9844411 a biography of Gloria Steinem. • Lam • POyr-own Opel r day. a 'mask Um —Ira. 10—a Sun, 0-6 Rao porting In row

58 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE