What REALLY happened at 12:30 pm on Friday, November 22, 1963 at WICS studio in Springfield? We have some contradictory versions, but memories from 50 years ago are subject to some revisionist history. Central to the story is the location of various key people that fateful day. The leading lady is none other than Eileen Jensen. She was the "craft" lady on Kim's Kiddie Korner (12:00-12:30) with host Kim Wilson, our 'across the street' neighbor. Doug Kimball was the mid-day (12:30-1:00) newscaster that day along with Kim Wilson, and Dale Coleman was the WICS station manager. Importantly, I was home "sick" that day from SHS (high school) as a 17 year old senior who was unprepared for a test that day. I was watching TV that noon (No,
NOT Kim's Kiddie Korner!!) when they broke in that shots were fired in Dallas at President Kennedy. I remember that the programming almost immediately switched over to the network (CBS I think) and there was very little detail about the President's condition for quite awhile....at least an hour I think. When I switched over to WICS (the NBC affiliate) it was already at network with Huntley and Brinkley in New York.
Here's how Dale Coleman, the station manager remembered that day:
http://www.uis.edu/archives/memoirs/KENNEDYPROJECT..pdf
"Doug Kimball, this newsman I referred to had a 12:30 talk show, a half hour interview show, as I recall, with Kim Wilson who co-hosted it with him and somewhere between a quarter after twelve central standard time and 12:30 I was called to the lobby of the station and H. G. "Skinny" Taylor of Decatur who at that time was president of the Republican County Chairman's Association had come in to the lobby, I had requested that he come in to do an interview in the studio to tell about a meeting the county chairman association that was coming up in Springfield that same weekend I think it was. And I was sitting in the lobby at the time the wire actually put the flash on and this probably came sometime around 12:20 p.m. And it was, oh, fifteen to twenty minutes later before I realized that there had been a shooting in Texas. And the reason I was finally awakened to that fact--apparently some of our viewers had heard a bulletin on radio or some other station and they started calling our switchboard. I was still in the lobby talking with Skinny Taylor and Doug Kimball, the other newsman at the station at the time. He had gone in to the studios to do this half hour show so, I suppose, around twenty minutes till one [p.m.] that day. After the phone calls I finally ran back and I saw the flash on the UP1 wire. And it said something to the effect that there had been a shooting in Dallas and they didn't even have the information at that time as I recall whether the President had been hit or not but of course then, they started following it up with shorter sentences that he had been hit, rushed to the hospital. 'But it was, oh, at least an hour before we knew whether he was dead or not as I recall.. I'll never forget when I finally tore these initial bulletins and the original flash off and took it in to Doug Kimball who was doing the live show. He took a look at that and his face dropped right on the camera and he turned pale as a ghost, Just pale as a ghost. He couldn't believe it, I'm sure. And shortly thereafter, why, the network took
over practically all the broadcasting time until the funeral was actually over. And for the first time in my life the local news department almost had nothing to do. Our biggest problem was trying to determine when we
would break in to the continuous network coverage of the wake, the so called activities going on around the assassination preceding the burial. And we did have to break in, oh, at least once a day for a short period
and most of the news from the time of the assassination until the funeral was attempting to get in all the messages that had been called in of the numerous social events, civil events, public events that had been or were to be canceled of course, out of respect to the death of the President."
Well, here's how Eileen Jensen remembers that day. She was in the studio just finishing Kim's Kiddie Korner.......
http://www.krextv.com/news/around-the-region/Remembering-John-F-Kennedy-233118291.html
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. On Friday people around the world remembered President John F. Kennedy. Nov. 22, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Like many, Eileen Jensen Kercheval remembers the moment she heard the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination."I was the troublemaker right in the middle," she said, fondly looking at an old picture. Kercheval was at an anchor desk and it was her job to tell the world what had happened."I asked people to pray. Asked them to pray for our country, the Connolly's and the President and his wife," Kercheval said. The event was so traumatic that her co-anchor had to leave the set."I felt I was ad-libbing for hours, but it was probably no more than five minutes."While some memories are so clear, others are a blur."We got word to destroy all that came in on teletype," said Kercheval.Information the station received that day, all gone, "I will always wonder to my dying day, what did they destroy?"While she may never get those answers, her memories will remain."After it was over then I had my cry."She and millions of others would shed tears, and remember a man who forever impacted the world.
We may never know what really happened, but I like thinking that my mother, the craft lady, took over command at WICS and kept the country together with prayer during those initial minutes.
But what's this about destroying teletype?????
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