1960

Amanda's Grandmother:

In 1962 during the Cuban Missile crisis I was pregnant. I was very afraid that I would not live to see my baby, though that was probably not a rational thought. But it was a very tense time and I think that was the first time I was old enough to really realize the consequences of war on a personal level.

The day JFK was killed will always be one of those days in my life that I can tell you exactly what I was doing at the moment I heard the news. The first president I had every voted for was JFK. And now he was dead. I was in Rantoul, Ill. feeding my baby lunch. And when the news was first announced I thought that I had misheard the announcer. But now it was fact and for the next several days all we did was watch the events on TV. It was so shocking. No one could believe that this had happened in the USA. It was a wake up call for everyone.

Segregation was in the midst of becoming a reality. My husband and I were living in Illinois as he was in the Air Force. This was the first time I had been out of the South and saw blacks and whites living together and sharing everything. I thought it strange but adapted to the change with no problem and for the first time in my life had a black friend. I had never disliked blacks, I had just never had the opportunity to socialize with any. So a new way of life was begun.

-Grandma

Amanda's Grandfather:

In 1963, when Kennedy got shot, my grandfather was a new 2nd Lieutenant in the USAF who was on his lunch brake. He thought it was fine that blacks could vote because where he grew up blacks could always vote due to Huey Long. My Grandpa remembers the March on Washington and he was impressed by Martin Luther King’s speech but unimpressed by the March. He was all for the space program back then. For fun, my grandpa liked to stay home with his family. He didn’t watch American Bandstand, but he knew what it was. He, however, did watch Ed Sullivan. Unlike most people, the Beatles did not impress my grandfather. He was interested by the Warren Commission. Hale Boggs, then Democratic leader of the US House of Representatives was on it. Hale Boggs was married to his cousin, Lindy Boggs, and Hale Boggs’ sister was married to his father’s business partner. My grandfather the Warren Commission did its job of investigating Kennedy’s assassination. He believed they got it right the first time, but the American people have been hoodwinked into believing Kennedy’s death was a conspiracy. He believes that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy and that he acted alone.