Remembering Austin's preparations for JFK visit
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Photo courtesy Austin History Center/Austin Public Library
As humdrum as the marquee outside Austin's old Municipal Auditorium — since repurposed into the Long Center for the Performing Arts — appears in the photo above, it's a poignant reminder of how the city welcomed President Kennedy for a leg of his Texas trip.
The date: Nov. 22, 1963.
Why it matters: The president never made it here.
Driving the news: Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of the president's assassination, a devastating tragedy that forever marked Dallas and the nation.
Between the lines: Kennedy and first lady Jackie Kennedy, accompanied by Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, were scheduled to land in Austin by 4pm, attend a reception at the governor's mansion, and then head to a fundraising dinner.
- Austin schools were due to close at 2:30pm so kids could see the president's motorcade.
- More than 2,500 spots had been sold for the $100-a-plate fundraising dinner, where University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal was slated to present to JFK a ball autographed by the Longhorns.
What he would have said: With typically eloquent and optimistic language, Kennedy was due to give a galvanizing speech about the longstanding relationship between Texas and the Democratic Party.
- "This country is moving, and it must not stop," the undelivered speech read. "It cannot stop. This is a time for courage and a time of challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the nation, and indeed to all mankind. Our duty is not merely power but the preservation of peace and freedom."
What they remember: The news of the shooting of the president led to instant grief.
- "Driving down the streets of Austin you'd see grown people on the street crying," said former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes at a 2013 panel about Nov. 22 at the LBJ Library.
- And at the Municipal Auditorium that afternoon, the wait staff that had been preparing to serve Kennedy "was crying and just standing numb," Neal Spelce, then a local TV news director, recalled at the same panel. "They didn't know what to do — they were just standing there, waiting."
What we're reading: Patrick Beach's excellent account, written a decade ago, about how Austin reeled that day in 1963.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Municipal Auditorium was repurposed into the Long Center for the Performing Arts, not the Palmer Events Center.