Newspaper Page Text
Lee Harvey Oswald’s
mother remembers
her son’s funeral
Pagel
Augusta Nms-Seujrut
VOLB, No. 30
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LINDA PERRIN was crowned “Miss Paine College” during ceremonies held in the
Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel Saturday night. She is flanked by attendants Cheryl
Radden and Bernadette Morgan (right).
A native of Elberton, Ga., Miss Perrin is a senior majoring in business
administration. She is a member of the Fashion Group Unlimited of Augusta, and
enjoys tennis, basketball and backgammon.
She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Perrin.
Oswald’s mother remembers
A tree grows in Dallas
By Marguerite Oswald
Pacific News Service
(November 22 marks the
15 th anniversary of the
assassination of President John
F. Kennedy. Two days later is
the same anniversary of his
accused assassin, Lee Harvey
Oswald. IN the following
account, Oswald's mother,
Marguerite Oswald, recalls her
feelings on the day of her
son’s, and the President’s,
funerals.)
Lee Harvey Oswald was
picked up by the Dallas police
on Nov. 22, 1963, as a suspect
in the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy.
For two long days and nights
he proclaimed his innocence,
always denying he had
anything to do with the killing
of President Kennedy or
Patrolman J.D. Tippitt. We
know his face was badly
burised. The pictures showed
it. He had black eyes and
scratches on his face when I
visited him in jail on Nov. 23,
1963.
As NAACP lobbyist
The executive director of
the NAACP, Benjamin L
Hooks, has announced that Ms.
Althea T.L. Simmons will
assume the duties of acting
director of the NAACP s
Washington Bureau, effective
January 1, 1979. Ms. Simmons,
who will succeed the retiring
Washington Bureau Director
Clarence Mitchell, becomes the
first woman to serve in the
post that is the major lobbying
arm for the associations
legislative efforts.
Althea Simmons is presently
the associate director for
Branch and Field Services, and
is a seasoned member of the
NAACP. She has formerly
served as National Director for
Education Programs, National
Training Programs, National
Training Director, Special Field
Representative and Director of
the National Voter
Registration Project.
The 54 year old, native of
Shreveport, lx, is a graduate
He said, “Don’t worry,
mother, I will get an attorney.
I know my rights. Please do
not interfere.”
That was the last time 1 saw
Lee Harvey Oswald, my son,
because on the morning of
Nov. 24, 1963, he was shot by
Jack Ruby while handcuffed in
police custody before millions
of people who viewed the
tragic event on television. He
had just turned age 24 on
October 18, 1963.
On the morning of Nov. 25,
1963, the day of the funeral,
the family was lodged at the
Inn of The Six Flags,
Arlington, Texas, between
Dallas and Fort Worth. We
were under the protective
custody of the United States
Secret Service. My
daughter-in-law, Marina, my
son Robert, myself, and Lee s
two adorable little girls, June
Lee and Rachael, were
together.
1 was told one hour in
advance to make ready, that
Lee’s funderal was about to
Woman succeeds Clarence Mitchell
of Southern University in
Baton Rouge, La., where she
holds a degree in Business
Education. She also has a
masters degree in marketing
from the University of Illinois
and a J.D. degree in law from
Howard University.
Clarence Mitchell, who has
been the NAACP Washington
Bureau Director since July
1946, will continue with the
association in a consultants
position and as Chairman of
the Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights. In addition, he
will serve as a Distinguished
Visiting Lecturer in political
science at Morgan State
University, and will practice
law with his son Michael in
Baltimore, Md.
Mitchell, who has been
affectionately called the
“God-father” of the 1964 Civil
Rights Bill, after an initial
career as a newspaper reporter,
started his NAACP career as
Labor Director, before
Marilyn and Billy
see respect as
key to marital bliss
Page 3
P.O. Box 953
take place. The Secret Service
agents did not ask me if I
needed anything, but wanted
to know Marina s size because
they wanted to buy her a dress.
They went into nearby
Arlington, Texas, and selected
two black dresses so that
Marina would have a choice.
They brought Lee and
Marina’s first bom, June Lee,
age 21 months, a new outfit
and some white high-top shoes.
1 helped dress baby Rachael,
who was only one month and
two days old. The baby had no
new clothes, nor did I, but this
was all right with me, for
Marina and June Lee did.
We left to go to Lee’s
funeral, where services were
held at 4 p.m. in the chapel on
the grounds of Rose Hill Burial
Park ... his wife, Marina, his
two babies, his brother Robert,
and myself. His older
half-brother, John Edward Pic,
was not present, because he as
a career man with the United
States Air Force, in uniform at
the time, and the government
assuning the post of
Washington Bureau Director.
He has served on various
governmental committees,
incuding the President’s Fair
Employment Practice
Committee, the War Manpower
Within a few days after
President Carter announced his
anti-inflation program to a
national television audience, he
was “putting long term
economic goals of full
employment with stable prices
into law,” when he signed two
bills passed by the 95th
Congress - the Humphrey-
Hawkins Full Employment Bill
and the Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act
amendments.
During a special White
By Frank Morring Jr.
From the Journal-Constitution
BIRMINGHAM - It was a
very special reunion. Fifteen
years after their struggles in the
streets and back rooms of this
city rang the death knell for
racial segregation, Blacks and
whites sat down together to
remember.
“I tried to get killed in
Birmingham because I believed
that to have lost my life for the
development of brotherhood
and fellowship in Birmingham
would have been the highest
accomplishment I could nave
achieved,” said the Rev. Fred
L Shuttlesworth. “There
wasn’t too much fellowship in
Birmingham in those
days.” Indeed there wasn’t,
decided it best that he not
attend.
Earlier, after Robert had
contacted three ministers who
would not help us in our
sorrow, or take the boy’s body
into a church, or even
participate on the grounds, one
minister, after much
persuasion, finally consented
that we would have chapel
services. He refused to bring
the body into the church, but
finally consented that we
would have chapel services.
So much for Christianity as
we know it today ... the laws
of our land state clearly that a
person is considered innocent
until tried by a jury and found
guilty beyond a reasonable
doubt
There is a beautiful chapel
on the grounds of Rose Hill
Burial Park on the outskirts of
Fort Worth.
Our family did think the
minister would keep his word;
but when we entered the
chapel, it was empty. My son,
Robert, cried bitterly because
Commission, the War
Production Board and the
Presidents Committee to
Employ the Physically
Handicapped under the
Truman and Eisenhower
Administrations.
President signs employment bills
House ceremony, the President
warned that “our fight against
inflation must succeed to
achieve the goals of the
Humphrey-Hawkins Bill. ”
Praising California Rep.
Augustus Hawkins for
yeomanship in the U.S. House,
Carter also cited the
contributions of the late Sen.
Hubert Humphrey and his
widow, Sen. Muriel Humphrey,
to achieve full employment.
Under the resolution passed
by Congress, GET A programs
Woman succeeds
Clarence Mitchell
as NAACP lobbyist
Page 1
November 25,1978
The battle of
‘Bombingham’ revisited
at least on the surface. In 1963
Shuttlesworth was already a
local legend for the beatings he
had taken in his sometimes
lonely battle for equality. Now
a minister in Cincinnati, he
returned to his home town last
week for the first Duard Le
Grand Conference on
Birmingham.
The topic of the conference,
named for the late editor of
the Birmingham Post-Herald,
was “Birmingham 1963-1978:
, Civil Rights and Social
* Change.” It attracted an
audience that ranged from
now-elderly Black
churchwomen who faced Bull
Connor’s dogs and firehoses to
white University of Alabama
students too young to
his brother’s body was not
there. Lee’s body had been
brought to the chapel and had
remained there for about an
hour. But someone ordered the
body removed to the grave site.
As we got to the grave, Paul
G. Groody, who was the
funeral director from Miller’s
Funeral Home, came forward
and said, “Mrs. Oswald, I’m
sorry, but we don’t have a
minister.”
Then the Rev. Louis A.
Saunders, who is an executive
for the Fort Worth Area
Council of Churches, stepped
forward and said, ‘ Mrs.
Oswald, if you like 1 will help
out. ”
The Rev. Saunders had not
preached a sermon in eight
years. He had come to the
cemetery on his own, he told
me. He had had no lime to
prepare a sermon, and he had
left his Bible > n his car, parked
See “OSWALD”
Page 6
Mr. William Penn, currently
the NAACP Director of
Personnel, will assume the post
of Acting Associate Director of
Branch and Field Service,
effective J anuary 1, 1979.
are to receive $10.2 billion in
total fiscal year ’79
appropriations and contains
stronger provisions governing
fraud and abuse.'-’"''
Rep. Hawkins said the full
employment measure contains
more than sll billion and will
provide 600,000 jobs. Mrs.
Coretta King, co-chairperson of,
the Full Employment Acnon
Council, said the unique
coalition would stay in
business to help with the
implementation of the law.
Less than 75% Advertising
remember the events that
earned for their city the label
“Bombingham.”
“I want to say this to these
young folks. Many of you
don’t remember what
happened because you were
too young,” said Dr. A.G.
Gaston. ‘There were Black
people with dynamite, white
people with guns. This city was
about to be destroyed.’
Gaston is 84. A millionaire
Black businessman in 1963 he
gave his money to Dr. Martin
Luther King and his assistants
from the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference and his
time to the delicate
negotiations with white
business leaders looking for a
Don’t bless us too much
Our Thanksgiving prayer is that
we w ill never be so blessed that we
fail to realize that we are blessed.
We sometimes forget that we live
in a nation that has half of the
wealth of the world. .And that while
we don’t see ourselves as being rich,
most of the world does. As we ride
around in air conditioned
automobiles, often equipped with
stereos and CB radios, we often
forget that for most peoples of the
world, including advanced nations
like France and England, a daily
bath is a luxury.
We should not forget that 80
percent of all the telephones and
television sets in the world are in
this country. While we have two
and three water fountains on every
floor in almost any public building,
one could walk for months in many
countries and never see a water
fountain.
We are, indeed, rich!
More important than the
material things, we should be
thankful for each other. Many of us
have suffered severe losses in one
way or another over the past year.
Yet, whatever the circumstances,
our tragedies could have been much
worse.
■
\ - ■'*
■ -JWI. - v X
THE* LADIES SERVICE LEAGUE unveiled a plaque of Black Poetess Phyllis
Wheatley in the Y.W.C.A. Wednesday. Mayor Lewis A. Newman read a proclamation
naming the day Phyllis W heatley Day in Augusta.
Mrs. Wilhemenia Sanders was the speaker. The Rev. Mrs. Essie Mclntyre (above
right) is president.
CM
President signs
Humphrey-Hawkins
CETA bills
Page 1
way to save their city from
itself.
“Fred (Shuttlesworth) had
more courage than I did,”
Gaston said. “I just couldn’t
stand nobody hitting me. I’d
hit them back.”
Many of the whites in the
audience had never seen
Shuttlesworth except on
television, leading marches
from the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church toward city hall
or being beaten outside Parker
High School by Ku Klux
Klansmen.
“They were trying to stamp
us out like a rattlesnake
coming out of a hole,” he said.
“We decided instead of taking
it all, to attack. The greatest
defense was a wonderful
EDITORIAL
Black people took a beating in
the recent elections, locally and
nationally. But we were able to
vote, to run for office, and to
participate in the electoral process
in a number of ways that have been
historically denied us. For this, we
should be thankful.
Perhaps it has not occurred to us
to be thankful for being able to
walk, talk, see, touch, hear, and
think But some of our friends and
relatives have lost their health, are
paralyzed. and cannot again
experience the joy of walking just a
few feet. It is to be hoped that we
will not have to fall into ill-health
in order to appreciate the health
that we have.
We are thankful for our lives
although many of us have not
learned that we were put here for a
purpose or discovered what that
purpose is.
For all of our blessings, we are
thankful, Lord.
But please don’t pile our
blessings so high that we can’t see
the Giver. Otherwise we won’t be
able to see that they are gifts, and
we may fail to be thankful.
25 e
offense. We would harass the
harrassers. ”
One tactic was filing suits
against the Birmingham City
Commission and its segregation
ordinances Shuttlesworth was
involved in so many he
considered himself “a lawyer
without portfolio.”
“I remember one time I was
representing myself and I had
Bull on the stand over in
federal court. You know, it’s
amazing the power a lawyer
has. I said, “What’s your
name?” Bull huffed up and
said ‘Eugene T. Connor.’ So I
said, ‘state it again.’ He that
See “BOMBINGHAM”
Page 6