New “Jackie” Movie

One week after an assassin’s bullet exploded John F. Kennedy’s head on a street in downtown Dallas, Jackie Kennedy, deeply traumatised by what she had witnessed, summoned journalist Theodore H. White to her Hyannis Port home in Massachusetts for an ­interview.  In the subsequent article, published in Life’s December 6 issue, Jackie gave birth to the Camelot myth that would define the Kennedy legacy. As they tussled over what White could and could not print, Jackie sought to influence how her slain husband would be remembered.  Read full article here.

The Grassy Knoll

Resize of Dallas, Grassy Knoll, JFK assassinationLesley Jenkins is a Life Member of Oral History Queensland and she traveled to the  Chicago History Museum via Dallas to take up a two week Fellowship generously provided by Museums and Gallery Services  Queensland. To find out more you can also visit her blog: http://magsq.wordpresscom

The grassy knoll goes down in history doesn't it as one of the sites linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Here visitors waited to see the President and his stylish wife, Jackie, drive past. It was from The Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza, then a book depository, that Lee Harvey Oswald purportedly fired the fatal shot. This museum features a lot of oral history and it is both powerful and poignant.  They also have a Living History Series which features talks by all sorts of people who have any connections to the assassination story.  They combine this with an ongoing oral history project that explores the history and culture of Dallas in the 1960s. Unfortunately they don't allow any photos to be taken of the exhibition and there is a feeling of high security as you explore the dark space with the most wonderful audio guide.