The front page of the Lima Citizen from November 22, 1963. Both the Citizen and the rival Lima News were afternoon newspapers and were essentially done for the day when the news broke that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. According to a Citizen report the day after the assassination, Judge John H. Harnishfeger was holding court in Allen County Common Pleas Court when he received the news. “A witness walking into Judge Harnishfeger’s court blurted out, ‘President Kennedy has been shot,’ as he raised his right hand to be sworn,” the newspaper wrote. “Judge Harnishfeger, stunned with disbelief, told the man, ‘If that isn’t true, you are in contempt of court.’”
It was a week before Thanksgiving and a day before the world changed forever.
In Lima, on that Thursday 60 years ago, both city newspapers – the News and the Citizen – were stuffed with ads for the upcoming holidays. At Woolworth in Westgate Shopping Center, 7-foot aluminum Christmas trees were $9.99 while Jones Hardware in the Public Square offered $6.88 Daisy air rifles to put under the tree. Frozen tom turkeys were 27 cents a pound and two cans of cranberry sauce sold for 35 cents at Pangles Master Market on South Central Avenue.
In a front-page story, the News reported that prime downtown parking spots, always at a premium and never more so than during the holiday shopping season, were being gobbled up before downtown retailers opened. Parking spots were still available in “fringe areas,” the newspaper reported. The Citizen carried a plea from the Better Business Bureau that those working downtown walk a little farther rather than take spots intended for shoppers.
The following day, the front pages of both newspapers planned to carry stories on President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Texas with First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy. “Campaigning with all his vigor of 1960, President Kennedy appeared well on his way today toward enforcing a unity among Texas Democrats he regards as vital to his re-election bid in 1964,” read an Associated Press story on the front page of the early edition of the Citizen on Friday, November 22, 1963.
At 1:42 p.m. eastern time, newsroom wire machines clattered to life as radio and TV broadcasters broke into regular programming with a bulletin: President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. At Lima’s parochial schools, pupils were marched to the haven of parish churches to pray for the nation’s first Roman Catholic president.
Meanwhile, at the News on East High Street and the Citizen on West Vine Street, those early front pages were scrapped and remade. The papers wouldn’t reach news-hungry subscribers until long after darkness descended on that gloomy November evening. The News printed its original front page inside that day’s edition as if to illustrate how much the world could change in the blink of an eye or the tug of a trigger.
At 2 p.m. eastern time, it was announced Kennedy had died in a Dallas hospital and reporters fanned out to get the reactions of residents, many of whom were simply stunned that something they thought could never happen in the United States in 1963 had happened.
“At 2:30 p.m. today, there weren’t too many people on the streets. Many were huddled around portable television sets and radios awaiting further news on the Texas shooting,” the News reported. “Many persons were eating a late lunch at Walgreen’s Drug Store (at the corner of High and Main streets). Suddenly, the radio announcer proclaimed a special bulletin. People were instantly stunned, and, in a few seconds, there wasn’t a sound. People stopped eating. The announcer kept talking but the people, according to one employee, seemed to stare into space.”
In a story published the day after the assassination, the Citizen wrote: “After the first news flash at 1:42 p.m., everything seemed to come to a standstill as businessmen and workers gathered around radios and television sets to learn more about the assassination of the chief executive. All of Lima seemed to pick up the telephone to urge friends and neighbors to listen to the news; the automatic equipment of the Lima Telephone and Telegraph Co. was overloaded to the extent that several times during the first half hour after the newsflash no dial tone could be heard.”
Later in the day, the Citizen added, “business in Lima went on almost as usual. Pre-Christmas shoppers crowded streets and stores; parking spots were as hard to find as ever. But business went on only almost as usual. Clusters of people gathered and Limalanders shook their heads in shocked disbelief. Women expressed concern for the Kennedy family, men were angry; angry that one single maniacal individual could cold-bloodedly and deliberately kill the President of the United States. It was a bleak Friday, November 22, in Lima. A Friday that will never be forgotten not only in Lima, but across the nation and around the world.”
History happened at a hectic pace that weekend. A little more than two hours after Kennedy was shot as his motorcade passed through Dealy Plaza in Dallas, a grim-faced Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president in a crowded compartment on Air Force One as it sat on the tarmac at Love Field in Dallas with Jacqueline Kennedy looking on, still wearing the blood-stained dress she’d worn in the motorcade. Kennedy’s body had already been placed on Air Force One for the trip back to Washington.
Less than an hour earlier, Dallas police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in the killing of Kennedy and the wounding of Texas Governor John Connally, who was riding in the car with Kennedy. During the arrest, Oswald fatally shot Dallas Patrolman J.D. Tippit. Then, on Sunday morning, as he was being transferred from Dallas police headquarters to the county jail, Oswald was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Oswald was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital 48 hours to the minute from the official time of Kennedy’s death at the same hospital.
On Monday, Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. “Lima’s business, industrial, social and educational pulse slowed down today as the city joined the state, nation and the world in mourning the loss of President John F. Kennedy,” the News wrote. “Almost all activity halted for the assassinated president’s funeral. … Local merchants despite the fact the Christmas shopping season is here, will close from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m.”
Although the assassination and its aftermath continued to dominate the news, Lima and the nation moved on into the holiday season. On Thanksgiving Day, the front page of the News contained stories on Ruby, an interview with Connally, and a reminder that Santa Claus would be in the Public Square, Westgate Shopping Center, and Northland Plaza on Friday – and that there were 22 shopping days left until Christmas.
Still, a pall hung over the holiday. “America observes Thanksgiving Day, but her heart won’t be in it,” the Associated Press wrote in a front-page story in the Citizen. “The tragic death of President John F. Kennedy was too recent and too deeply etched for a normal observance of the traditionally happy time of bountiful feasts and family reunions. …The usual religious services associated with the holiday – now 174 years old – took on a special significance in a nation shocked by the assassination of a president. Almost every church and synagogue scheduled special services.”
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SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
LEARN MORE
See past Reminisce stories at limaohio.com/tag/reminisce
Reach Greg Hoersten at [email protected].
