We were just trying to be a normal family. There was always the question of whether I should tell the guy about Lee. Cuban intelligence officers, a K.G.B. Oswald, after all, fled the Texas School Book Depository by Dallass notably unreliable public-transportation system. Lee explained to his wife in Russian that he had invited over a pair of fellow Russian speakers as a favor. He beat my mother. Q: What are your thoughts on Norman Mailer's new book? Now Lees voice rose again. After I insisted, she said she had never had such a sum of money in her life and planned to go right to Montgomery Ward. At the bottom of the Oswalds conflict, I thought, was Lees refusal to let Marina learn English. On these shopping trips, I soon realized, Marina couldnt help noticing that other mothers were buying more, dressing better and even driving their own cars. It was 7 a.m. on Sunday when the single phone at the bottom of the stairs echoed through my parents red-brick house, right off Monticello Park in Fort Worth. MORE THAN 30 YEARS AFTER the Kennedy assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald is a name that will not go away. One guy I told actually thought I was crazy. Apparently he had even gone to my fathers grave. Lee was intelligent, but he was no genius. If he allowed Marina to learn English, he said, his Russian would suffer, and it was very important that he retain his fluency. Thinking, Two, Feet. Mailer is such a great writer; I was just so enthralled. They think you always have to have a car, whereas I got away on my own two feet. In Minsk, where he was assigned to work, he met and married (April 30, 1961) Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova. A postcard to Paul Gregory from the Oswalds, November 1962. At the same time, she seemed to be tiring of her husbands radical ideas. Q: How did you feel about being singled out? Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 - November 24, 1963) would become infamous for his involvement in the fatal shooting of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Dixie DeaApril 28, 2004 in JFK Assassination Debate. Q: I assume you've seen the footage of Lee being shot by Jack Ruby. agent or two, Mafia bosses and even C.I.A. Moreover, Porter currently leads a private life and is afraid to go out in public. New photos show Lee Harvey Oswald's widow as a 72-year-old grandmother living quietly in a suburban Texas town. This summer, with the 50th anniversary of the J.F.K. Anna Meller could scarcely control her anger over his selfish behavior. Hey Dixie! Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who was accused of killing President John F. Kennedy. As the familys translator of choice, my father was now part of the plan to get the Oswald women out of the dingy hotel room and into a safe house that Robert had arranged at his in-laws farm, north of the city, so Marina could be questioned. The Highly Unusual Funeral of Lee Harvey Oswald. 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. But I don't remember that. In June 1962, the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Dallas, Texas. So she became a sort of tourist attraction. The Soviet Union was a miserable place to live, she continued, so why had he left a country that was so wonderful and hospitable? Marina Oswald had become the most wanted witness in America. By 1964,Marina Oswald Porter had put the Warren Commission behind her and was willing to take up Michigan's offer to learn English while receiving help from a local church, according to the University of Michigan Heritage Project. Q: What is the status of your present-day identity? Aside from Carey, Bader is the only cast member to appear in every episode of the series. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Is David Lifton still working on a book about Lee? After completing her English program, she left Michigan for good. Later on, Marina went to Minsk to stay with her uncle named Ilya Prusakov, a colonel in the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. Another car pulls up - and that's the parents and the little boy. At the same time, an ex-marine defector to the USSR returned the Ft. Worth with his wife and infant daughter. I know that in my life, Lee wasn't a good man. The bars decor consists chiefly of scuffed wooden tables, and junkyard scraps nailed to the walls - rusted license plates, cow skulls, yellowed newspaper clippings, and a hand-scrawled sign above the cash register noting that Tipping is not a city in China. Old Life magazine photographs used to hang on the walls, including one of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Marina met Lee Harvey Oswald (a former U.S. Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union) at a dance on March 17, 1961. After a couple of months of lessons, my parents Russian migr circle became curious about my new friends. Eventually, she retired. Oswald currently lives a private life and is afraid to go out in public. I guess they decided we must be a certain way and then wrote it. Some of you may not have read June (Oswald) Porter's 1995 interview and might find it of interest. I started worrying about, first of all, do I have a responsibility to tell them? The Mind of Oswald, p.171, Trafford on Demand Pub. On the other hand, I would also just like to speak with an old friend. When we moved to Rockwall, which was much smaller than Richardson - people there lived for farming and football - everyone in town knew my mother. Just out of the blue. I was shy - and I chose not to date much - but enough of the article was false that we filed a lawsuit and they settled out of court. A: The "second spirter," right. Kate O'Brien (Christa Miller) - Friends with Drew, Lewis, and Oswald since they were kids. His rifle, which fired the fatal bullet into the president, was found in the sniper's nest. If she was led to LHO in Russia and then to his family after Dallas, what does that tell us? The couple got married during Lees temporary defection to the Soviet Union and migrated with him to the United States. She hadn't read it. Ive never even been to the Kennedy Memorial. Oswald took a bus and a taxi to his rooming house, departed, and about a mile away was stopped by Patrolman J.D. Marina then told me she was unhappy. When dinner was served, Bouhe kept things light by asking Lee and Marina about life in Minsk. According to the University of Michigan Heritage Center, the plight of thewidow, with two preschoolers to feed, tugged at the heartstrings, and soon enough she'd received donations of food, clothing, and cash totaling $70,000 the equivalent of over $600,000 in 2022 dollars as well as an offer to come to Michigan to learn English and live with a family there. One night at the end of her shift, she and I shared a bowl of queso, chips and $2 Bloody . didnt want to recruit Oswald. "Their questioning left me only one way to go: guilty. In October 1956 Oswald dropped out of high school and joined the U.S. Marines. Stevie Ray Vaughan was turned up loud on the radio. And I said, "Yes?" The evidence has remained highly debatable. While in police custody, Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby. We are ashamed that such a thing could happen in our country. As a sign of her gratitude, she gave me a memento from her days in the Communist youth league a pin of Lenins image, chin jutted out in a defiant but thoughtful pose. At 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963, from a window on the sixth floor of the depository building, Oswald, using his mail-order rifle, allegedly fired three shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. I was sitting next to the daughter of a presidential assassin, an attractive and healthy woman who apparently wanted nothing more from life than to be a good nurse. And I realize that I'm kind of cold about it, so how do I tell them? But reporters were already camped out in front of Paines yard, so the group was diverted to the home of the citys police chief, C. J. Wirasnik. So l never connected it as a big negative or anything. A: I've always called him that. It features interviews with Rachel Oswald Porter and June Oswald Porter, the daughters of Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald, who were raised by their mother and their adoptive father, Kenneth Jess Porter. 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. Lee Harvey Oswald was an American Marine who defected to the Soviet Union because he supported communism. In February 1962, Marina gave birth to a daughter named June. Marina, who never knew her father, said that she couldnt bear that her two children would also grow up without one. Autobiography of Lee Harvey Oswald: My Life in My Words, p.194, iUniverse, Diane Holloway, Lee Harvey Oswald (2000). The public was prohibited from Rose Hill Cemetery, and no friends or other relatives showed up.. We lived in poor housing or were taken in by others. And then, they tell a story about how after that I stood up in front of the whole class and said, "My father shot the President." I just remember crying a lot because Mom was crying. The widow is approximately 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 meters). Then I find out he's been doing some quote-unquote assassination research. Or who my father was?. And they say: "Oh, we can take pictures? She remains protective of her privacy, distancing herself and her sons, ages 6 and 3, from the overall clique of assassination cultists who have dogged the Oswald women - Marina, now 53, June, and Rachel, 31 - ever since the events of Nov. 22, 1963. Aaron Gilchrist Bio, NBC News, Age, Height, Wife, Salary, Twitter. Marina, already thin, appeared extremely gaunt; she was having difficulty breast-feeding Rachel, her younger daughter, who was not yet 5 weeks old. Corrections? He said things when we were together like he really wanted to have children because "that would be the blood of Lee Harvey Oswald that was flowing through the kids.". . According to a 2013 New York Post report, she and her family were good neighbors who kept to themselves. If someone has it, I would also like to read it again. Around 11 a.m., with the temperature climbing into the 90s, a slight, 22-year-old Oswald arrived, drenched with sweat and wearing a wool suit. Nice to see you over here. He was short and wiry, his hairline noticeably receding, and he spoke with a Southern accent, not Texan, perhaps a relic of time spent in New Orleans during his youth. 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. One would think they would be more anxious to try to, clear his name. I can tell you that I am very excited about the book in concept. At the time I didnt know Gary was involved in the movie, in fact I didnt really even know who he was. The writers portray me as this traumatized, victimized kid - theres a scene of me having a birthday party that no one comes to - just me in my birthday hat all by myself. I do blame him for having beat my mother, and not being a good father or a good provider. The Secret Service first knocked on my parents' door at 3 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 23, 1963. by certain people in the critical communiity, so no wonder they are a bit gunshy. To soften the blow, he invited Oswald to lunch at the Hotel Texas, a block from his office, with its bustling dining room filled with deal-making oilmen, bankers and lawyers gnawing on Melba toast, a specialty. the whole pattern of failure throughout most of his 23 years led to the outbursts of violence in April and the final tragedy in November 1963.. And Allen Dulles (the former head of the . 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. He was never in the same place for long. Reporters came over and she would tell us, "shhhh, go in the other room". (The issue, which would curiously remain in the same place during all my visits, was dated Jan. 5, five months before the Oswalds arrival in the U.S.) We sat there uncomfortably for some 20 to 30 minutes until Lee burst in the door, dressed in his customary simple slacks, a plaid shirt with open collar and sleeves rolled up to the elbows, carrying a stack of weighty books from the Fort Worth public library. 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. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. A: Yes and no. A: I remember Rachel's seventh grade dance. She stays with her second husband who is called Kenneth Jess Porter. My father is Kenneth Porter, the man I grew up with, the man who was there for my mother and Rachel and me. By Melissa De Witte Those alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news the president had been shot. 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. I think he was checking me out because I look very much like my father, and think he was trying to feel for my dad by looking at me. Lee did. Her tone told me all I needed to know; Lee had been deeply insulted and mortified by my response. My secretary in my last job put two and two together based on one of those articles. I don't blame him for not being here for me. They spoke for a while, but when Lee rejoined us, he was sullen and quiet. For seven years Rachel was a waitress at the Chili Parlor while she put herself through nursing school. The bartenders were closing up, and Rachel said she needed to call it a night. I don't know if I could've done it and kept my sanity: two small children, don't speak the language, dirt poor, everybody in the country pointing their finger at you -hating you in some cases. Q: And if someone were to show scientifically that Lee Oswald was or wasn't involved, that wouldn't make a difference to you? A: I don't have any real memories of those ages. People sent us money following the assassination, because Mom was young with two small children and didn't speak the language. She was this delicate Russian beauty, widowed by a man who shot the president. 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. My first serious boyfriend -that's what he was fascinated about. The next day, Monday morning, the Secret Service tried to keep the television set off, but Marina once again drinking coffee and chain-smoking, with tears streaming down her face insisted on watching the state funeral of John F. Kennedy. [3] They married six weeks later and had a daughter, June Lee, born the following year. John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. New book by Hoover fellow recounts his experiences knowing JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. She worked at an Army Navy Surplus Store in uptown. 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 . I don't think that's true. I remember my sister and I going to his hotel room and seeing 12 books about my father on the nightstand. assassination looming, I sent Marina a personal letter and a written recollection of our time together and followed up this fall with a phone call. They said it would depreciate the value of their home. Now he is the author of The Oswalds: An Untold Account of Marina and Lee, out on Nov. 15 with Diversion Books. "Biography/Personal Quotes". According to the story, Rachel was a miserable, lonely child - her dogs had been poisoned, she had never been asked out on a date, she had no friends, her family couldnt even afford to buy albums for her record player. She shrugged. Though he constantly toted volumes about politics and eagerly name-checked The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, it soon became clear to me that Oswald had no real understanding of Communism beyond Marxs appeal for workers to unite. The couple wed within a few weeks, and eventually had a daughter. Who was Lee Harvey Oswald? Q: Did you ever take the so-called assassination tour? I nodded that I appreciated the distinction. She hinted at physical abuse and explained that she had left him only to reconcile after he pleaded for her to attend Thanksgiving at his brothers house. I mean, Ive never gone to my fathers grave., Everything about my father is accurate., So, what do you think really happened? 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. Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 - November 24, 1963) was, according to five government investigations, the sniper who assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.. A former U.S. Marine who lived in the Soviet Union for almost 3 years, Oswald was first arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit (1924-1963), who had been shot on a Dallas . Audrey was born after her family moved from Russia to the United States. Appendix 13: Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. This helped explain why our school bus was sometimes followed by news teams, why our mailbox got shot at, why kids at school would ask, Did your daddy shoot the president? At home we rarely discussed Lee. The law said that if they felt that way, then those documents needed to be turned over to the Assassination Records Review Board and those folks would review the records and either concur, release them in blacked out state or release them entirely. Apparently on good terms with police officers as a result of legal run-ins at nightclubs he worked at, Ruby was able to access the basement area of Dallas City Hall. Q: On your relationship with her as well? Then he sat down. And it was there that my father told Marina, in Russian, that her husband just died. The couple wed within a few weeks, and eventually had a daughter. (In the past, I saw baby June sleep on a blanket atop a suitcase.) In 1965, according to All That's Interesting, Marina married a carpenter named Kenneth Porter. He said, I know who your father is, and then he just got up and shook his head and left. 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. You are now the manager of this memorial. Marina took a step backward and fell, thumping her head on the hard, dry ground and dropping June. Original black and white photographic negative taken by an unidentified Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. In the final scene they have my sister and me walking hand in hand to the Kennedy Memorial singing We Shall Overcome. That never happened either. Oswald met Lee Harvey Oswald in March the year 1961 at a dance in Russia. It would be great to hear more from Lee's daughters, about the folks who surrounded them as they were growing up. And you know, it's not Lee's fault he got killed by Jack Ruby. Lee, in his curt way, agreed. In October he returned to Dallas and secured a job at the Texas School Book Depository. By November 24th, two days later, Oswald would be shot and killed by Jack Ruby while in prisoner transport. I asked Rachel how many people in the bar knew who she was. Mostly I feel bad that Lee was never able to tell his story. But you know, just because you're hanging out with a weird group - they could have set him up, and he could have had no idea what was going on that day. Robert Oswald told me in September that he had not talked to Marina in quite a while. He tried to after the arrest but everybody discounted it. We are very close - except when these kinds of things come up. He got really scared and wanted to take me to a hospital. Like she did a movie and it involved me and Rachel, and she didn't tell us first. The Texas Chili Parlor is a neighborhood bar without a neighborhood. Diane Holloway, Lee Harvey Oswald, Bob Cheney (2008). She told me that there was going to be a movie made about the assassination and asked if I wanted to have lunch that afternoon with Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner - my mother didnt even know who they were - and I was thinking to myself, Oh, my gosh, Im going to have lunch with Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner! So we meet them at a Chinese restaurant. They both believe that the facts need to be revealed, all files opened and let the chips fall where they may. She smiled rarely, if at all a typical victim of Soviet dentistry, she was ashamed of her teeth. Over the years, despite public-opinion polls, many others have agreed. A: I've never publicly said one way or the other for sure. The caller said only that she had been a student in his Russian language course at our local library, and that he knew her son. The Oswalds had been my friends. Marina answered most of the questions, speaking quietly and occasionally showing photographs. Investigators took Marina and her children to Dallas, essentially severing the friendship with. Q: Your childhood doesn't sound like it was easy. Gregory, a woman said as my father picked up, I need your help. Who are you? Somehow those boxes came down and she was reading, and I guess she felt it was time to tell us. This story appears in the March issue of Texas Monthly. He brought along maps of St. Petersburg at various stages of its history, and they spread them out on the floor and huddled together, pointing at various landmarks. She studied gymnastics and ballet, made good grades, was a varsity cheerleader, and was even voted most popular student by her classmates. 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. Would I mind coming over? Now, the word father does mean Lee to me, But dad is Dad. Book Haven readers will remember his earlier account of the events of 1963 in The New York Times Sunday Magazine here. Just get out. By October, Oswald had found his own room and, with the help of Marina's landlady, had found work at the Texas School Book Depository. 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. We said hello to my parents and went into the kitchen to prepare some turkey sandwiches. Sacrifice, Revolution, Certain. Q: One can't help but notice that you address him as "Lee.". Q: I guess you must be encouraged that the review board was finally sworn in last year. Additionally, after two days of Lees arrest, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner while still in police custody. She wanted to know Lee; she wants lee to be a saint. Porter was born on the 17th day of July in the year 1941 in Severodvinsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. www.imdb.com. In the year 1965, the widow got married to a man named Kenneth Jess Porter. It was in Minsk that, in 1959, she met an American, Lee Harvey Oswald, who had defected to the USSR at the height of the Cold War, when tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets were running high. In 1982, a national tabloid newspaper ran an unauthorized cover story on Rachel and her sister claiming, OSWALD KIDS DONT HAVE DOGS OR DATES. The word Oswald was stamped in red ink over photographs of the two girls. It was distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Q: Tell me about growing up in the aftermath of the assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald's 'reclusive' widow Marina pictured for first time in 25 years No-one gives the 72-year-old gran a second glance as she slowly walks across a Walmart car park in a small town in . Both interviews I found in the JFK collection at the Dallas Public Library last November. 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. In October 1966 a Texas appeals court reversed the conviction, but, before a new trial could be held, Ruby died of a blood clot, complicated by cancer (January 3, 1967). You know, its interesting if you think about it, Rachel said, lighting a cigarette. Sometime shortly thereafter, the Soviets changed their. 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. One of the latest authors to wade into the conspiracy waters is Norman Mailer, whose book . Rachels mother, Marina, then barely in her 20s, had arrived from Minsk, Russia, only a year earlier and spoke very little English. Marguerite, on the other hand, was having a fit; she refused to be sent out to the sticks, as she put it. In 1977,she told reporters at a press conference about her book "Marina and Lee" that she believed her husband was guilty. While that five-month period might seem fleeting, it was a significant period in Oswalds life. Despite being attached to one of the most shocking crimes of its time, it seems that the people of America took pity on Marina. We were studying the Presidents. Over the years, though, Marina began to shy away from making public statements about her deceased husband. I don't think it's relevant to anything we do here and I appreciate you keeping it to yourself." By found it I meant that I was looking back through the forum pages and this was posted first in 2004 so I decided to bring it back up to peoples attention. She seemed happy for the company. Americans are so spoiled. I usually end up telling people that I'm seeing very often. He wasn't much of a husband, he wasn't much of a father. 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. I didnt know my family was any different until I was about 7. The assassination has also been a constant in the life of June Oswald Porter, the 33-year-old daughter of Lee Harvey Oswald. But anonymity exacted a curious price of its own, as June faced myriad graceless references to her father, mother and family. That never happened. I read this intvu again and if there are two people I'd love to talk to, it's Rachel and June. "Now she's a widow, too," said newspaper headlines across the country. Q: Do you worry about telling your children as they grow up? And his account of Women of the Gulag here and here. After her testimony, she did, in fact, go to Michigan, although not everyone in the Wolverine State was happy to have her there. Lee Harvey Oswald, his wife Marina, and his daughter June Lee, when they lived in Minsk in the USSR. I always feel torn by whether I'm required to tell somebody about my history. She looks a bit like Helena Bonham Carter, who, coincidentally played her mother, Marina in a 1993 TV movie about the Oswald family. Two days after the momentous event Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby, before he could be tried. 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. "The Mind of Oswald", p.171, Trafford on Demand Pub. For the most part, folks were nice, but they were always whispering things. During one visit to a Rexall drugstore that August, Lee became visibly angry when a pharmacist offered to hire Marina, who had worked at a hospital pharmacy in Minsk, once her language skills improved. John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
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