As the country marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, KUT asked Austinites to share their personal stories about where they were on that day.
From Boulder, Colorado to Tripoli, Lebanon, Austinites remembered precise details from what could have been another normal Friday in November, fifty years ago.
KUTX's John Aielli was a 17-year-old DJ at a local station in Killeen when he had to break into programming to announce the president had been shot in Dallas.
"I'll never forget it."
Read excerpts from some of the interviews and listen in the player below.
Ghassan "Gus" Karim
"When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was in Tripoli, Lebanon in the tailor shop. There was a lot of noise in the street and the whole street started talking, people were crying and were shocked. Everyone left work and wanted to know more information about what is going on."
Ginger Turner
"We were in class and the loudspeaker came on and
we kept hearing things, thinking it had just been left on. Then we started hearing 'President shot' and all of a sudden the teacher said, 'Everybody be quiet.' And we heard President Kennedy had been shot. Our teacher put his head down on his desk and he was very upset. Finally he lifted his head and said, 'Y'all go on,' and we all left the room and got to go home."
Charles Conley
"I was crossing a football field in Minneapolis. There was a loudspeaker. I just remember the news and being shocked. I was in college, and was thrilled to have a president that appeared to be vigorous and young like us. To have him be shot was a great shock. It was horrifying and depressing."
