JFK Where were you?

I was about 10 at the time,I was getting ready for bed.The news flash came on the TV,I remember feeling apprehensive and anxious,although I don't know why,I vividly remember the photos of jackie cradling JFK in the back of the car,being shown on screen,I was touched by that scene for a long while,I knew something significant and momentous had happened but too young to understand what.

I think everyone old enough remembers where they were. 30 years ago we told our young daughter this and she went round asking people and was able to confirm it. I was at home and they interrupted the TV programmes to say he had been rushed to hospital and then the dreadful news came through. My older sister was in the West End but she came home. We just wanted to be together.
There are few people whose deaths are so shocking and memorable: Elvis, John Lennon and Princess Diana. I also remember the death of Marilyn Monroe because we were on holiday.

I was 13 and don't remember where I was – probably at home. I vividly remember hearing about the assassination of the much greater figure and finer man, Martin Luther King.

I was in my first year as a teacher. With my two housemates, I was relaxing in front of the TV (Harry Worth) after our evening meal. To say that we were shocked is an understatement and we were so sad because JFK meant a lot to our generation as a fresh voice, speaking to us, which couldn't be said for his predecessor or for our own politicians.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can agree with you about Martin Luther King, absent, but at that moment, JFK's reputation was still untarnished by subsequent revelations. It was as if the sun had gone out.

As I remember, which might not be wholly accurate after the intervening 49 odd years. Sitting at home on a Friday night with parents who had the "Home service" tuned to listen to "Any questions" which I hated! This was in the days when we had no central heating and one coal fire in the living room. You couldn't sit anywhere else in the house, so it was put up with it, or freeze.

I cant remember I was only 8, but my MIL would always tell us of the shock she had when JFK died... her youngest 6mths was ill with pneumonia and she went off to the chemist and left the baby with her Mum, and as she walked in the door her Mum was crying and said 'He's dead' at which point MIL fainted thinking she was referring to the baby.

I remember absolutely clearly - I was hoovering and my first baby was tootling around in a baby walker - she was nearly four months old.
I also remember where I was when Diana died, and 9/11, and the death of Princess Grace (I was in Monaco at the time).

I was 15 and at home watching TV with my family and boyfriend when the announcement was made. Those of us who could understand were shocked and my parents casually commented that this could spark another war. I was becoming interested in CND so this terrified me. As the facts emerged, I and my friends engaged in more political discussion, but attempts to get answers from teachers were fobbed off. How lacking in information we were in those days, compared with today. My boyfriend of only a couple of weeks had no interest in what had happened, so I stopped seeing him.

When - I wish I had been as highly-principled as you when I was a teenager. I don't remember ever discussing politics with a boy friend. My anger at injustice came much later in life.

glitabo so was I, my first term.
Like others, I thought he would 'change the world', I became rather disillusioned later!
Greatnan, Diana yes, it was the final day of our stay in the Dordogne, the owner of the cottage (a family who had relocated from Yorkshire) came over to tell us. Needless to say we avoided Paris on the way home.

Don't think it was high principles then Greatnan. I decided he was boring, although looking back he was actually really nice and just at a different stage than me.

I can never forget the date when Princess Diana died as it was on my birthday and I still think of her on the day.

I also remember JFK's death and the feeling of huge sadness and disappointment that he had gone. I was at my DH's house for the evening (then my fiance) and it came up on the TV as a news flash.

I was watching a film at the Cinema.
It came up on the screen,
Funny a lot clapped at the time.
A few people make marks in our lives Dianna ,( was making breakfast at the time)
when they pass .

Diana - I had the radio on late at night and the news came through that she had been involve in a crash in Paris (I'd been there just a few days earlier), and had been rushed to hospital. A bit later came the news that she hadn't made it.

We passed the scene of another assassination without even realising it. we were on holiday in Ireland. We had driven to Dublin on 26 June 1996 for a very pleasant day out. On the way home, not far from Dublin we passed a posse of police clearly combing the wide grass verge on the other side of the road for evidence. It was not until we got back to the lovely warm people running our B7B that we heard that investigative journalist Veronica Guerin, sister of Orla Guerin, had been shot 6 times in her car by a man on the back of a motorbike. She had been investigating drug barons and had already received threats against her family. The family who had made us so welcome were shocked.

I was 14 and heard the news on the BBC home service and felt deeply shocked and remember feeling very moved at the sight of his children at the funeral. We discussed it in hallowed tones the next day at our school netball match - JFK was certainly a hero to our generation, at that time.
Another one that made a deep impression was the Munich Air Crash in 1957 when almost all the Manchester United team were killed, although I was only 7 years old at the time. We lived near Manchester, and football had a rather different image then.

I was 16 and at home watching TV when there was a news flash. I must have been politically aware as I felt that JFK had brought us close to war with the Bay of Pigs fiasco a couple of years earlier and my initial reaction was that the world might be a safer place now.

I was 18 and walking through my home town when someone told me about JFK. I was sick with disappointment and horror - we really thought things were changing for the better.
When his brother was killed, and MLK, I gave up hope for America.

I'm afraid that when Dianna died I was sad that such a young mother had died, but then I groaned and thought to myself "brace for the tidal wave of bullshit" . I was not wrong.

When John Lennon was murdered I was utterly furious - the Beatles had given us the music of our youth, and some stupid shit had taken Lennon away from us.

When Elvis died I was disgusted that no-one around him had helped him live a healthier life. They just watched him eat and dose himself into an early grave.

I was at school (boarding) and had been asked to see the head with a younger pupil who was in trouble (I was her head of house). We had just been told about JFK and were shocked so I really did not care tuppence about what this girl had done and what I was to do to make sure it didn't happen again. Mind you the head herself was a big vague as I remember.

I can remember Marylin Monroe dying; I was in German speaking Switzerland and MARYLIN TOT was the headline.

Also hearing on the "wireless" that Rolls Royce had gone bust. Why it made an impression I'm not sure; I never owned one!

JFK - I was just going into supper at college; we all forwent supper and went to the television room. We felt that youth and hope had gone.

And for the 9/11 I was in the local Post Office and heard and went yhome and turned on the television is see unbelievably the towers fall.

Elivis died the day DD2 was born so I remember that(Oh & Lord Lucan disappeared on the day DD1 was born)

I have also been to the 'grassy knoll' in Texas where he was shot , it was a very sombre atmosphere even after all these years .

I had come home from hospital that day with my baby DD. We did not have a TV and the radio we had was to say the least a bit dickie - we heard enough to know that something big had happened. My OH ran downstairs to phone his friend to ask what the news was. It was great shock everywhere. Initially when JFK was elected it was thought that there may have been a dynasty of Kennedy s in the White House with Bobby following and then Teddy.
The arrest and killing of Oswald and then the Jack Ruby arrest etc kept the story in the forefront for so long not to mention the conspiracy theories. The manner of the assination was so awful and the fact that it was able to be carried out despite the security everywhere.

I was about 9 when JFK was assasinated. I remember that I was lying on the hearth rug drawing pictures with my brand new felt tip pens ( I think they were a fairly new thing then). I remember the newsflash on the tv and I jumped up screaming out the news. My mum and nan were in the kitchen and they didn't believe me and I was accused of telling fibs ???

For unknown reasons I remember having a fit of the giggles when Churchill died. I got a severe telling off as my father was a staunch admirer of the old statesman.

When John Lennon died I was nursing my 5 month old son I was so very sad and rang my husband at work to tell him the news.

We were just about to leave our holiday cottage in Scotland when my youngest shouted that Diana had died. I didn't believe him. On the journey home wherever we stopped people were just in shock. My youngest son is the same age as William and I feel that from that day it deepened his feelings for me as he became and still is very protective of me.