I always felt that the Cubans were being pushed into the Soviet Bloc by American policy. Left: Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife, Marina, are seen aboard a train as they depart Russia in 1962. I had a conversation like that with her in about 88. Q: To what extent have you followed the various conspiracy theories? I asked what it was like being named Oswald and growing up so close to Dallas. My father now understood that the woman on the other end of the line, Marguerite Oswald, must have taken his class to communicate with her daughter-in-law, Marina, who spoke little English. However, a decade later, she told Ladies Home Journal that she believed the Warren Commission pressured her at the time a widow with two children and facing deportation to the Soviet Union to implicate her husband. The thud was so loud that I feared she might be seriously injured; Lee, however, screamed at her for her clumsiness as she lay curled on the ground clutching for her baby. A: Yes. So l never connected it as a big negative or anything. On 22nd November 1963, Marina told the commission that she believed her husband was guilty of shooting President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. On a typical lesson evening, I would show up around 6:30, when Lee got home from his welders job. He got really scared and wanted to take me to a hospital. We always had this really bad connection, and when you'd pick up the phone you'd hear that other click. About a week later, my father and I drove 10 minutes from our house to Lee and Marina Oswalds new home, a cramped one-bedroom duplex near the Montgomery Ward building. The Mind of Oswald, p.215, Trafford on Demand Pub, Diane Holloway, Lee Harvey Oswald (2000). Marguerite, on the other hand, was having a fit; she refused to be sent out to the sticks, as she put it. US, he met Marina Prusakova at a dance, and they were married on April 30, 1961. If someone has it, I would also like to read it again. In addition, she is a Russian-American. This summer, with the 50th anniversary of the J.F.K. "She never knew when we'd run into someone, and she didn't want us to look like poor white trash"' June says simply. Thanks for this. Lee Harvey Oswald's Oldest Daughter - The Education Forum Sometimes when the cheerleading squad went to football games in different towns, people in the stands would shout stuff at me - you know, Your daddy shot Kennedy or Good thing your daddys dead and buried. But mostly things were pretty normal. Then I find out he's been doing some quote-unquote assassination research. Im just a regular person. Dinner ended abruptly. The Oswald living room was extraordinarily bare; there was a shabby sofa and chair and a worn coffee table where a copy of Time magazine featuring John F. Kennedy as its Man of the Year was prominently displayed. In September he went to Mexico City, where, according to the Warren Commission, he tried vainly to get a visa for Cuba and to get Soviet permission to return to the U.S.S.R. So he moved to Boston and wanted me to join him. We beg you not to think ill of us.. In the year and a half after he returned to the United States, he moved several more times. I read this intvu again and if there are two people I'd love to talk to, it's Rachel and June. For seven years Rachel was a waitress at the Chili Parlor while she put herself through nursing school. I believe he's the first writer-researcher to get interviews with sources in the Russian Government and so this is an opportunity to shed new light on the subject from an area that has never been explored in any meaningful depth. While that five-month period might seem fleeting, it was a significant period in Oswalds life. She worked at an Army Navy Surplus Store in uptown. It was a considerable sum (at one time, Lee gave her $2 a week from his earnings), but she refused it immediately friends, she said, did not accept money from one another. Who I am? she asked. Every once in a while my mother would say that I looked like him, that I ate like him, that my legs looked like his legs, but for the most part we just didnt talk about it.. We didn't use the Oswald name, and it didn't come, up a lot around the house except when reporters would call It was always a big deal in November, when it was very stressful in the house. Lee Oswald and A.J. At the bottom of the Oswalds conflict, I thought, was Lees refusal to let Marina learn English. Daughters of Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald Come Forward l think her physical health and mental health have been damaged in recent years over all of the pressures put on her. The whole series of frustrations had now brought him to this final stage, Robert Oswald writes in his memoir. Q: Did you see the "Seinfeld" episode in which they're at the ballpark, and they get spat upon, and-. Well, there's a travel guide she found out about that actually listed the Texas Chilli Parlor and said the daughter of Lee Harvey Oswald worked there. Marina waved goodbye from the steps. I know some people can remember vividly like it was yesterday, but I don't do that - even about yesterday. My father helped Lee and his young family get settled in Fort Worth a year earlier. My boyfriend would sneak down to Priscilla's basement and read all her old files. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. By November 24th, two days later, Oswald would be shot and killed by Jack Ruby while in prisoner transport. A special Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, better known as the Warren Commission because it was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, investigated from November 29, 1963, to September 24, 1964, and concluded that Oswald alone had fired the shots killing Kennedy and that there was no evidence that either Oswald or Ruby had been part of any conspiracy. It was just kind of eerie. Obviously, if I'd wanted to share that I would have told everyone a long time ago. Two days after the momentous event Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, before he could be tried. That kind of stuff makes you feel violated. We've also written about his account of Lenin's brain here. "She and Ken are good people, the best neighbors you could ever have," said a neighbor, Fred McCurley. She also said that she seemed to be a good mother. As the summer drew to a close, before I returned to Norman for my senior year at O.U., I went to the Oswalds for my final language lesson. I didn't really want to be the center of gossip in this whole building. When my mother came on and this interview went so badly, I decided I really wanted to rebut. She was born in Dallas Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where both Kennedy and her father were transported after being shot. He was always provided for, but he was also, in a way, homeless--without a stable backdrop of buildings or even. As of May 2022, she was still living, according to All That's Interesting. Rather than tell him that there wasnt much of a market for a Russian translator in 1960s Texas, my father, who fled Siberia during the civil war, welcomed the chance to meet this fellow Russian speaker in person. I was thus thrown into the life and troubled marriage of Lee and Marina Oswald, as Lee struggled to fulfill his dreams of fame and Marina . They think you always have to have a car, whereas I got away on my own two feet. The couple are pictured with their daughter. Lee explained to his wife in Russian that he had invited over a pair of fellow Russian speakers as a favor. A: I would make a difference in the sense of justice being served. I hear they burn for murder. In a bar filed with pretty women, Rachel was striking enough to turn heads. She wanted to know Lee; she wants lee to be a saint. But it was still depressing, seeing my father shot every time I came to work.. I was really supportive. I know you were just a toddler, but do you have any recollections of turbulence in the household? Through my father, I had become a close or, as Robert Oswald would later say, almost the only friend of Lee and Marina Oswalds from virtually the moment they arrived in Fort Worth, in June 1962, until the end of that November. Aside from Carey, Bader is the only cast member to appear in every episode of the series. Agent Mike Howard of the Secret Service told me he had not spoken to Marina since the exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswalds body in 1981. I don't know if it's the interview you mean but I have a copy of one with Rachael from 1995 from a publication called 'Texas Monthly'. Gifts processed in this system are not tax deductible, but are predominately used to help meet the local financial requirements needed to receive national matching-grant funds. A: It was unusual. There were a lot of things leading up to that that they wanted Mom to do, and Mom in recent years has gotten more and more involved, I guess because she's getting older and trying to rectify some of the things she may have done unintentionally - like stating publicly that Lee did it. [quote name='John Geraghty' date='May 13 2006, 02:49 PM' post='62308'], Dixie, thanx for the interview. Some of you may not have read June (Oswald) Porter's 1995 interview and might find it of interest. (June has requested that her married name, which she still uses in business, not be printed), Despite privacy concerns, she's pushing for the release of all records pertaining to the assassination. He avoided deportation by attempting suicide and was sent to Minsk, where he met Marina. Another car pulls up - and that's the parents and the little boy. Q: Give me an example of what you'd consider harassment, A: When I was pregnant with my first, some lady got my phone number and called in the middle of the night. We visited the set of "JFK" when it was going on, and somebody said, "Your father was a hero." Lee Harvey Oswald shot by Jack Ruby - YouTube While Lee Harvey Oswald was sitting in a Dallas jail cell, his wife and mother and two young daughters were hiding out at the Executive Inn, a commuter hotel near the airport, where they were taken and then abandoned by a team of Life magazine staff members. I mean, things werent completely normal. I remember that helicopters flew over my mothers wedding to my stepfather, that it was sort of a big deal in the news.. The Secret Service first knocked on my parents' door at 3 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 23, 1963. campus so Lee could talk to a school official. Lee Harvey Oswald - Biography - IMDb After getting married to her second husband Kenneth Jess Porter, Marina gave birth to a son known as Mark Porter. Hours after the Kennedy assassination, my parents and I experienced the shared horror of realizing that the Lee Oswald we knew, the one who had been in our house and sat at our dinner table, was the same man who had just been accused of killing the president. "The Mind of Oswald", p.171, Trafford on Demand Pub. I usually end up telling people that I'm seeing very often. Q: Where do you stand today as far as your perception of what really happened out there in Dealey Plaza? In January 1979 a special U.S. House of Representatives Assassinations Committee, after a two-year investigation, reported that a second assassin may also have fired a shot and that there may have been a conspiracy. While Lee Harvey Oswald was sitting in a Dallas jail cell, his wife and mother and two young daughters were hiding out at the Executive Inn, a commuter hotel near the airport, where they. Lee responded defensively that, yes, he did not think that the party faithful believed in Communism anymore but that this did not make America a great place. There were times when we didn't have milk to drink. He himself was fatally shot two days later by Jack Ruby (1911-67) in the Dallas County Jail. We stayed with her for the summer. If she was led to LHO in Russia and then to his family after Dallas, what does that tell us? New book by Hoover fellow recounts his experiences knowing JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. It is difficult to imagine what life must be like for the child of a celebrity - having a recognizable last name, a childhood in the spotlight. She wasn't just a widow, however. She needed a translator fast. If so, do I tell him on the first date or the third? One night at the end of her shift, she and I shared a bowl of queso, chips and $2 Bloody . There's a lot of genetic things you can't even control that are inborn in your kids. Q: Over the years, you've kept a pretty low profile. I just remember crying a lot because Mom was crying. On the Saturday morning after Kennedy was killed, I was sitting in my small apartment in Norman when a Secret Service agent and the local chief of police arrived and took me some 20 miles down I-35 to Oklahoma City for questioning. A: The last two years have been very stressful, because she started doing things that she hasn't let us know about, then all of a sudden I hear about it or see it on TV. There was a bill passed at the end of the Bush Administration that required all Government agencies to review their files for any information related to the assassination and to release it - unless they felt there were matters of national security or a couple of other issues. I dont know who else was involved, but clearly it was too big of a deal for one 24-year-old kid to do by himself. Over the years, though, Marina began to shy away from making public statements about her deceased husband. And she said: "I'm so and so, and I just want you to know that I've written a song about you - and your child. That catches you off guard when you just wake up. Lee Harvey Oswald's childhood did not take place in any one town or city. Q: If someone was to ask you today who your father is, what would you say? They both believe that the facts need to be revealed, all files opened and let the chips fall where they may. Revolutions require work, revolutions require sacrifice, revolutions, and our own included, require a certain amount of rationing, a certain amount of calluses, a certain amount of sacrifice. I never saw them again. I'm just a patsy. The life and death of Lee Harvey Oswald - CBS News A doctor pulled up the sheet to reveal the area in his torso where Jack Ruby shot him. The opening of formerly secret archives in Russia indicate that the K.G.B. And she's just welcoming them with open arms. What it boils down to is that every time I meet someone - every person at a party, every customer I wait on, every classmate, every teacher, every would-be friend - I ask myself: Do they know who I am? Book Haven readers will remember his earlier account of the events of 1963 in The New York Times Sunday Magazine here. As they ordered their lunch, my father tried to engage Oswald about his wife and life in contemporary Russia, but the young man volunteered little about how a former Marine and Fort Worth resident could end up in Minsk other than to say enigmatically that he had gone to the Soviet Union on my own. Upon parting, Oswald offered the address and telephone number of his brother Robert, with whom he and his wife were staying, just in case anything came up. As Priscilla Johnson McMillan writes in her book, Marina and Lee, the presidents route under Oswalds workplace might have convinced him that fate had provided a unique opportunity. officers (including, supposedly, members of Nixons plumbers team) have somehow been tied to Oswalds actions that day, but its difficult to understand how these conspiracy theories would have worked. This montage of early 1990s television specials was curated by the JFK Assassination Forum. As America's obsession with her father goes on, a daughter tries to set the record straight. Is David Lifton still working on a book about Lee? by certain people in the critical communiity, so no wonder they are a bit gunshy. Its set in 1978, when I was 15 and my sister was 17. Who was Lee Harvey Oswald? Q: When were you actually told about your father and the assassination? A: I don't have a comment on it as far as its conclusions because I haven't read them, but I did start the book. At the time I didnt know Gary was involved in the movie, in fact I didnt really even know who he was. Marina also disclosed that her grandmother was religious, which was particularly pleasing to Bouhe because he organized Russian Orthodox services in Dallas. We were terribly moved by this. I didn't shoot anybody, no sir . Did Lee Harvey Oswald have any daughters? Bouhe was impressed that Marina spoke educated Russian and that her grandmother had attended an exclusive girls school. In February 1962, Marina gave birth to a daughter named June. One day, my mother sat my sister and me down on our big green couch and told us that the man who had raised us as our father - our stepfather, Kenneth - was not, you know, our real father, that our real fathers name was Lee Oswald and that he had, well, that he had been accused of killing the president of the United States., Rachel smiled. Seven months later, a far greater target would be scheduled to pass by the very building where he worked. She got all caught up, because she wants so badly to have this identification with her father. According to Rachel, in the months immediately after Lees murder, Marina, Rachel and her 2-year-old-sister survived chiefly on the charity of churches in the Dallas suburb of Richardson. It was hilarious. Lee Harvey Oswald was a KGB associate who was personally instructed by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to assassinate President Kennedy. A: Not until recently. After Marina returned to Six Flags, humiliated by the rushed service, my father consoled her by translating a telegram from a group of college students. The doctors advised Marina against viewing Oswalds body, which was yellow and pale, his face bruised, but Marina insisted; she wanted to see the wound that killed him. He recalled my father fondly (Pete Gregory was a good guy, he said) but politely refused to recount his experience yet again. Q: And if someone were to show scientifically that Lee Oswald was or wasn't involved, that wouldn't make a difference to you? MORE THAN 30 YEARS AFTER the Kennedy assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald is a name that will not go away. After a short while, he concluded that he would do whatever he could for this young woman, even if that meant helping her husband, who had sulked off to the den, waiting to be called to the table. They think you always have to have a car, whereas I got away on my own two feet. In addition, Marina lived there together with her mother and stepfather until the year 1957. "Their questioning left me only one way to go: guilty. Probably the only other people in America who have to routinely see film images of their father being killed are the children of President Kennedy. She blew a long stream of smoke toward the ceiling, Kinda strange, huh?. A: Yes and no. Do I need to be more compassionate' about it? The couple got married during Lees temporary defection to the Soviet Union and migrated with him to the United States. After completing her English program, she left Michigan for good. One guy I told actually thought I was crazy. I told them simply that, if I were organizing a conspiracy, he would have been the last person I would recruit. Copyright 2023, The Spokesman-Review | Community Guidelines | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy, 'There's not much doubt': Families of UI students react to suspect's initial court appearance and new details released, Former Gonzaga guard Kyle Bankhead crafts game plan against alma mater, Rasir Bolton rescues No. And I realize that I'm kind of cold about it, so how do I tell them? Although disillusioned with the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald remained "Marxist," even . Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was an American Marine who defected to the Soviet Union because he supported communism. I don't think it's relevant to anything we do here and I appreciate you keeping it to yourself." Richard Rodrigues Author has 3.4K answers and 465.8K answer views Oct 2 Marina did her best to disappear into obscurity once the dust had settled on her husband's crimes and subsequent murder. During one of Lees lectures about Castros Cuba, Marina, who had lived her whole life under Communism, interrupted to say that the Soviet Union was foolishly spending its precious resources to prop up Cuba. U.S. National Archives A young Marina Oswald during her years living in Minsk. Marina would later tell the Warren Commission, through a translator, about his imagination, his fantasy, which was quite unfounded, as to the fact that he was an outstanding man. Perhaps he chose what seemed like the only remaining shortcut to going down in history. During a trip to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Oswald exuded an air of optimism. The kids didnt care much one way or the other. WHO WAS LEE HARVEY OSWALD? | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov) The conversation segued to the Time cover; Marina ventured that the president appeared to be a nice man and that the first lady, at least from the pictures she had seen, appeared quite glamorous. And she recalls her childhood as a "pretty happy" time, thanks in large part to her stepfather. The late-night air had become a distinctive Texas medley of cigarette smoke and day-old chili fumes. As we drove, I began telling them about how I met Oswald, the evenings driving around Fort Worth, the Dallas Russians and how a college kid got caught up with an accused assassin. A: It would have been, like, first grade. Dear Paul! it read, We have moved to Dallas where we have found a nice apartment and I have found work in a very nice place, we would like you too [sic] come and see us as soon as you get a chance, before eventually signing off in Russian. Nevertheless, Marina was not implicated in the assassination but testified against Lee Harvey during the Warren Commission hearings. And it was there that my father told Marina, in Russian, that her husband just died. The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald - Statement Analysis My friendship with him was perhaps the longest hed ever had. LEE HARVEY'S OLDEST. We would climb into my yellow Buick and drive by department stores or Montgomery Ward, and Id bring them back home by 10. But a week and a half later, after I returned to my parents home for Thanksgiving, I answered our single phone at the bottom of the staircase. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/magazine/lee-harvey-oswald-was-my-friend.html. Nonetheless, during several interviews over the past she reports being content. But anonymity exacted a curious price of its own, as June faced myriad graceless references to her father, mother and family. Sacrifice, Revolution, Certain. In her early years, grocery shopping with her mother, Marina, and sister, Rachel, took place amid stares and finger-pointing; hushed conversations ignited around them like flash fires as they walked the supermarket aisles. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Well, we're all waiting and a car pulls up in the driveway, and Mom rushes out to greet these parents, and they happen to be a man and a woman, and they've got a camera and she says, "Oh, you're gonna take pictures! Lee Harvey Oswald. Autobiography of Lee Harvey Oswald: My Life in My Words, p.194, iUniverse, Diane Holloway, Lee Harvey Oswald (2000). He treated her Russian friends poorly, she said, and tried to keep her isolated in the house, doing the grocery shopping himself. She copied it and put it on all my staff's desks. Because that's mostly what I think of when I think of Lee. I have a bachelors degree in natural sciences. Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? | FRONTLINE - pbs.org They had so little in Minsk anyway, she said, why waste money on a faraway nation that offered her fellow citizens little besides expensive sugar? I'm a strong woman, but I don't know if I could've kept myself together.
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