Readers React: Where Were You When President John F. Kennedy Was Killed?

Today marks the 50th anniversary of a date that will forever be recognized as one that changed our nation forever. 

John F. Kennedy was shot near Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, on this date in 1963. He would be pronounced dead from those gunshot wounds less than a half an hour later. 

Thousands of miles away in St. Michael, a small village in 1963 that was about an hour ride, by car, from the Twin Cities, the ripples were felt as the nation went into shock, and then grief. 

We asked Patch users via our Facebook site where they were and what they were doing. The most original response came from Charlotte Gardner, who was an eighth-grader at St. Michael Catholic School. 

"It was noon hour and I was walking close to the office and heard the phone ringing," she wrote. "No one was answering, so I went and took the call. What a shock as to what I was told. The President had been shot and killed. At once I found our Principal and was told to tell some of the teachers. No school for a few days. Stayed home and watched the TV. This date is engrained in my memory just as where we were on Sept. 11, 2001." 

Both Brenda Christian and Sandra Greninger remember they were watching "Captain Kangaroo" at the time. Christian was four, Greninger just five when the president was killed. 

"I remember my Mom being upset as she tried to explained the situation to me the best she could," Christian wrote. 

A senior in high school, Pam Venjohn, who lived in tiny Polo, S.D., knew the world had changed. 

"I was sitting in our school gym waiting to watch the junior class play. Our superintendent came out and made the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot and killed," she said. "Many started to cry but most of us sat in disbelief. I had a very similar feeling when I first heard about 9/11." 

What many remember is how everything stopped. People went home, turned on one of the three major television networks (some only received two channels) or the radio, and just never really tuned out. They were connected to Walter Cronkite as the casket reached Washington, D.C., or as the funeral procession made its way through the nation's capitol. And they watched as the young president lied in state in that Capitol rotunda. 

"The rest is history as we stayed at home the next days and watched the TV coverage," Judy Beuadry wrote. 

So, where were you? Feel free to leave feedback here, or on our Facebook page, as were remember John F. Kennedy today.