DALLAS — In his first public program at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Dan Rather delivers the keynote address marking the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Rather plans to share his experiences covering the assassination as a reporter for CBS as well as other areas of his journalistic career.
The talk is the final event of Impressions of Jack Kennedy, a series of free public programs featuring new speakers who will offer their first-hand account of the Kennedy assassination and its chaotic aftermath. Other Impressions events feature Dr. Kenneth Salyer, a surgeon who treated President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital.
Salyer’s multimedia presentation is set for Tuesday, November 18, at 7 p.m. It will be the first time Dr. Salyer—now one of the most preeminent craniofacial surgeons in the world—speaks publicly about his experience in the trauma room the day of the assassination, save his Warren Commission testimony.
Also speaking for the first time at the museum is the Reverend William Holmes, who served as minister of Northaven United Methodist Church in Dallas in 1963. Delivered just days after the assassination and televised on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, Holmes’ scathing sermon of Dallas’ social and political climate at the time sparked national attention and prompted police protection for his family.
Holmes’ will again deliver his sermon and talk about the consequences of it, including the death threats he and his family received. He will also cover controversial topics that include stories of Dallas schoolchildren cheering the news of President Kennedy’s assassination. His presentation is scheduled for Nov. 20.
All Impressions of Jack Kennedy events are free and open to the public.
The Impressions evening events are complemented by a daytime program series November 17-22. Consisting of lectures and book signings, the daytime programs feature eyewitnesses, police involved in the investigation and journalists who covered the assassination as well as Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder two days later.
All daytime presentations are followed by a Q and A session and are free with paid admission to the Museum.