Fifty years have gone by, but many St. Thomas community members still remember the day John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated.

On Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas when he was shot in his head and neck by a sniper. Lee Harvey Oswald, who has become known as the lone assassin in the Kennedy murder, was later shot on his way to the county jail by Jack Ruby, a man distraught over the death of the president.

The Rev. John Malone, St. Thomas’ vice president for mission and a St. Paul Seminary student in 1963, said he was leaving lunch with the rest of the student body and was on his way to the Cathedral to participate in the daily Latin prayer for the deceased when the news of the assassination broke.

“He was the first Catholic president, and you are in a Catholic institution and surrounded by other people—it was like one of your own has been shot down,” Malone said.

In an excerpt from a sermon that then-St. Thomas President the Rev. James P. Shannon gave at the Solemn Requiem Mass for Kennedy in 1963, Shannon praised and respected how Kennedy upheld and honored the Catholic name.

“His fidelity to his religious beliefs has been recognized and admired by Catholics around the world,” Shannon said.“(Prominent Catholic leaders) could hardly say that our national leader had sacrificed his religion for his job.”

Carole Jacobs, communication and journalism department administrative assistant, had just passed her driver’s license exam and returned to her high school when she learned about the assassination.

Not sure as to what was happening, Jacobs said she got out of her car and heard someone say Kennedy had been shot.

The end of “camelot,” a term commonly used to describe JFK’s time as president, came in 1963 through this unexpected tragedy and has been remembered by the baby boomers as an influential moment in their lives.

“I just think anybody who lived through it was really affected emotionally and mentally, because we still—even 50 years later—can go right back to that moment in time when it happened,” Jacobs said. “A lot of people remember that as one of the most dramatic things in their lifetime.”

Senior Chris Gelke refers to the assassination as the “where were you?” moment of the baby boomer generation.

“It was an intensely sad moment when a bright, up-and-coming leader was taken from this country,” Gelke said. “It still captures our imagination and is unnerving, to think one person could take out the most important man on the planet.”

During news broadcasts following Kennedy’s death, Jacobs said differences were set aside and the students and the nation felt as one.

“I remember sitting and watching the TV segment of what had happened all weekend long. It seemed as if the world stopped, and we all focused on JFK,” Jacobs said.

“The shared grief of the moment is what is most memorable … people seemed to need to be with others and not try to sustain the shock and sadness alone,” Malone said. “For a moment in time, there seemed to be only one event and emotion.”

Johnnay Leenay can be reached at leen1980@stthomas.edu.