We will hear about the company hated set of circumstances that ended in garfields death. This event from the Smithsonian Associates is about two hours. Professor nurnberger of the four u. S. President assassinations, the one i find fascinating and interesting is the one we will discuss tonight James Garfield. For quite a number of reasons. First of all, garfield is one of the most intelligent president s weve ever had. By the end of it or the middle of it, you will start laughing because you will just say, that cannot be. He cannot be that good in that field, it is just not possible. You will find Something Else and say, no. He did he is just incredibly bright. The hope for his presidency was in or miss. We going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. I was chatting with a friend before and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. I do not know how you test Something Like that. It is not as if you give president s iq test. It is a lot easier with things that
School, sixth grade. I had a wonderful sister a nun sister Roberta Miriam and sometime in the early afternoon a knock at the door came and that was rare. Back in those days you were not interrupted in class. She went to the door and i heard her gasp. She placed her hand up against her chest. She came back to the class and she said students i have terrible news. President kennedy has been shot but he is still alive. Take out your rosaries and lets pray for the president. Back in those days rosaries were standard operating equipment and the catholic classroom so we all took out our rosaries and we were holding each bead for dear life. Maybe 20 minutes later or so she had to go out in the hall and she came back and she was crying. We knew it was over. Lets go where was that school . Norfolk virginia saint pius. They would kill me if i didnt mention it. Host do you remember that weekend . Guest we all remember it. We were all of a sudden everyone was crying. A good friend of mine was clean
I had a wonderful sister, a nun sister Robert Miriam and sometime in the early afternoon, a knock at the door came and that was rare. Back in those days you were not interrupted in class. She went to the door. I heard her gasp and she placed her hand up against her chest. She came back to the class and she said students i have terrible news. President kennedy has been shot but he is still alive. Take out your rosaries and lets pray for the president. Back in those days rosaries were standard operating equipment in the catholic classroom so we all took out our rosaries. We were saying and holding each beat for dear life in maybe 20 minutes later or so she had to go out in the hall and she came back and she was crying. We knew. It was over. Host where was the school . Guest Norfolk Virginia saint pius the x. They will kill me if i dont mention it. I remember everything about it. I remember, and everybody was crying. I went to my lockers a good friend of mine was cleaning out his locker f
Anything. She was crying and we knew. Do you remember that weekend at all . Guest i remember everything about it. We were all upset. And i went to my walkers. A good friend of mine because the next week was thanksgiving and the odd thing you have to be at Catholic School at the time to understand but i remember seeing to my friend he was the only catholic elected president and he didnt live to finish out his term and thats the way that we looked at it back then. I was seven when he ran for president and i was so excited. It was the eighth Sacramento Bee for john f. Kennedy and i passed out literature in my neighborhood. I remembered a woman slamming the door and saying i dont support a papist. I didnt know what that was that it was a big deal to us. There was a lot of anticatholic prejudice. Host i was seven at the time that i have a vivid memory of our principal walking into our second grade classroom in new york and telling us. The only two things i remembered that is after i got hom
The third person on the list was helen thomas. She wound up writing the forward. She passed away in july. In fact, shes one of ten people in my book who have passed away since ive interviewed them. I want to show you a brief slide show of some of the about 90 people who are in the book and some of their reflections on john kennedy. Afterward, ill come back for a few minutes, and then scott will come up and speak. And i suppose i am a [inaudible] in that 24 hours for the first couple of days. I would think that i, you know, became more realistic as a journalist and saw the larger screen probably and the consequences of during action and the evil that can come even to america. So i do think it was a seminal time for me. The Television Set was, if you will, the centrifuge for the country. Everybody yes. Drew from it in some fashion. I think his legacy was in the boldness of his rhetoric and declaration. I met him as a Young High School student. I was visiting my father at the United State