Monday, Nov. 25, 1963
University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Eyewitness Tells of Assassination
(Continued from page 1)
I watched a swift and confused panorama sweep before me.
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Kilduff raced up and down the hall. Police captains barked at each other. Two priests hurried in behind a secret service agent. A police lieutenant ran down the hall with a large carton of blood for transfusions. A doctor came in and said he was responding to a call for "all neurosurgeons."
CHARLES ROBERTS of News-week Magazine, Sid Davis of Westinghouse Broadcasting and I got a police officer to take us to the airport in his squad car.
As we piled out of the car about 200 yards from the Presidential aircraft, Kilduff spotted us and said the plane could take two pool men to Washington, that Johnson was about to take the oath of office aboard the plane and that it would take off immediately thereafter.
We reached the door of the conference room and there were loud cries of "Quiet!" Fighting to keep his emotions under control, Kilduff said "President John Fitzgerald Kennedy died at approximately one o'clock."
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THEN KILDUFF and Wayne Hawks of the White House staff ran by me, shouting that Kilduff would make a statement shortly at the far end of the hospital.
After calling my office I ran back through the hospital to the conference room where a White House aide grabbed me and said Kilduff wanted a pool of three newsmen immediately to fly back to Washington.
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I ran down the stairs and into the driveway, only to discover Kilduff had just pulled out in our telephone car.
I saw a bank of telephone booths beside the runway and asked if I had time to call in the news. "For God's sake, hurry," he said.
All circuits were busy to the Dallas office and even Washington. I finally called the New York bureau of UPI and told them about the impending inauguration of a new President aboard the airplane.
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Aboard Air Force One on which I had made so many trips as a press association reporter covering President Kennedy, all of the shades of the larger main cabin were drawn and the interior was hot and dimly lighted. The plane sat on the ground throughout the ceremony.
KILDUFF PROPELLED us to the President's suite two-thirds of the way back in the plane. The room normally could accommodate eight to ten people seated.
I wedged inside the door and counted 27 people in this compartment. Johnson stood in the center with his wife, Lady Bird. U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes, 67, a kindly faced woman, stood with a small black Bible in her hands, waiting to give the oath.
Johnson waited for Mrs. Kennedy, who was composing herself in a small bedroom in the rear of the plane. She soon appeared alone, dressed in the same pink wool suit she had worn in the morning when she appeared so happy shaking hands with airport crowds at the side of her husband.
She was white-faced but dry-eyed. Friendly hands stretched toward her as she stumbled slightly. Johnson took both of her hands in his and motioned her to his left side. Lady Bird stood on his right, a fixed half-smile showing the tension.
JOHNSON NODDED to Judge Hughes, an old friend of his family and a Kennedy appointee.
Outside a jet could be heard droning into a landing.
"Hold up your right hand and repeat after me," the woman jurist said to Johnson.
Judge Hughes held out the Bible and Johnson covered it with his large left hand. His right arm went slowly into the air and the jurist began to intone the constitutional oath. "I do solemnly swear I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States."
THE BRIEF ceremony ended when Johnson in a deep, firm voice, repeated after the judge,
"... and so help me God."
Johnson turned first to his wife, hugged her about the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Then he turned to Kennedy's widow, put his left arm around her and kissed her cheek.
The two-minute ceremony concluded at 2:38 p.m. and a second later the President said firmly, "Now let's get airborne."
Several persons, including Sid Davis of Westinghouse, left the plane at that time. The White House had room for only two pool reporters on the return flight and these posts were filled by Roberts and me.
When the President's plane reached operating altitude, Mrs. Kennedy left her bedchamber and walked to the rear compartment of the plane. The casket had been placed in this compartment.
MRS. KENNEDY went into the rear lounge and took a chair beside the coffin. There she remained throughout the flight. Her vigil was shared at times by staff members close to the slain chief executive.
Johnson walked back into the main compartment.
"I'm going to make a short statement in a few minutes and give you copies of it," he said. "Then when I get on the ground, I'll do it over again."
When the plane was about 45 minutes from Washington, the new President got on a radio telephone and placed a call to Mrs. Rose Kennedy, the late President's mother.
"I wish to God there was something I could do," he told her. "I just wanted you to know that."
been cut out of us." Mrs. Johnson told the elder Mrs. Kennedy. Then she broke down for a moment and began to sob. Recovering in a few seconds, she added, "Our love and our prayers are with you."
"WE FEEL LIKE the heart has
After we landed in Washington, Roberts and I were given seats on a helicopter bound for the White House. In the compartment next to ours, in one of the large chairs beside a window, sat Theodore C.
Sorensen, one of Kennedy's closest associates with the title of Special Counsel to the President. He had not gone to Texas with his chief but had come to the air base for the somber return of the dead President.
Sorensen sat wilted in the large chair, crying softly. The dignity of his deep grief seemed to sum up all of the tragedy and sadness of the previous six hours.
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