 Well, thank you for doing this. Let's talk about, start by talking about the relationship between your father and John Kennedy, his boss. There is a lot written about this in history, but you were there. You witnessed it up close. What was their relationship like? I never heard my father say anything that was at all disparaging of President Kennedy. I think he got along very well with him. I think they served in the Senate, and I think that daddy recognized that he could be a help. He knew the senators. He knew how to work the Congress. President Kennedy assigned him some things that he cared very much about, the space industry, the whole NASA was one of daddy's creations. I remember in walking with daddy soon after Sputnik went up, and daddy would walk down to the cemetery. We'd do that at night, and he would look up and point up there to that. And there'd been some comments by some Republicans that said things like, the Democrats can keep their eyes on the stars. We're going to keep our feet on the ground. And daddy just looked at it almost as a compliment, I think, that he, yes, they were. And they had the preparedness subcommittee. And so President Kennedy followed up on that and had him be the lead person on NASA. And that was something he cared very much about, and daddy appreciated it. And mother stepped in quite often for Mrs. Kennedy, because she was pregnant or she was recovering from pregnancy or the birth. And many, many times we had events where mother was taking her place. And Mrs. Kennedy wrote mother and told her how much she appreciated it. As a matter of fact, I have a wonderful letter from Mrs. Kennedy talking to me about how much mother had done for her and presiding at Senate ladies events and trying to take some of the load off her. I have a hilarious picture of all of us on the South Lawn with this pony that daddy gave to Caroline. And I have obviously come straight from National Cathedral School where I was finishing up my high school. And there I am in my bobby socks and my Oxford shoes, which were required. You had to wear these awful black and white shoes to school and long skirt. And it's not the most flattering picture I've ever seen of me. But President Kennedy is standing there and he has his arms folded and he's looking at the pony. And we're all watching. And it's a very tender picture. And he's smiling. And Mrs. Kennedy invited Lucy and me to come to the White House several times. And one time, we got an invitation to come when daddy and mother were overseas. And we thought, we called up and said, we think this is a mistake. You didn't mean to send this to us. And Mrs. Kennedy said, yes, I did intend to send this to you. And we went. And that was very exciting for us. I was just graduating from high school. And to get to go to the White House was a great thrill. And I also have pictures, for instance. They had a Christmas party for the children of embassy children, of ambassadors children at a party at Christmas. Let me start that over. They had a party at Christmas for the children of the ambassadors. And I came to the event and helped receive with Mrs. Kennedy. And one of the funny things is we had known each other for many years because both her husband and my father gave away their state of the union tickets. And we ended up getting in by sitting on the steps. And we shared these step seats at the Senate. And frequently, she would remark about how we got to know each other. And we were really closer in age than she was to my mother. You were 20 or 21. She was about 30 or 31. I was, well, this was in high school. So I was a little bit younger. I was like, yeah. I think in 1961, I was 17. And I cannot tell you I was the most mature 17-year-old, and certainly not socially. So she was very kind to me. And the fact that a grown-up was treating me with respect was wonderful. Well, the conventional wisdom has it that there was a great rivalry between John F. Kennedy and your father. It seems, though, that in their relationship as president and vice president, they sort of grew to have a great mutual respect for one another. Is that what you're saying? I would say that's very true. My father always spoke very highly of the president. And my mother, too, of course, of Mrs. Kennedy. And one of the things, President Kennedy, all of us, we thought he was just the most handsome, interesting person we'd ever seen. And there was one occasion where, when daddy was vice president, that I went over to the White House and I brought this friend of mine, Warrie Lynn, who was my college roommate. And we waited. Daddy had said we could come over. And he would introduce Warrie to, you know, Warrie would get to see the president. And so we came and we waited. And then the door to the Oval Office opened up and we went in. And President Kennedy said, well, is the fleet in yet, Linda? And he was laughing because at that time I was engaged to a young man who was just graduated from the Naval Academy. And, or at least I was, yes, I guess that's right. I guess he had graduated. And I had graduated. I was in college by then. But he teased me. And I felt very close to the president, his magnetism and his youth. Mrs. Kennedy wrote you a letter upon your engagement to that young man. Talk about that. Wrote me a long letter, very kind. She was saying that talking about how mother had raised me and had hoped that she would, her children would turn out as well. And it was a long letter in her beautiful hand on her gorgeous blue stationery. And it's one of my treasures. And she talked about the parts of the job of First Lady that she liked and some that she didn't like as much. And she appreciated my mother taking over and helping her with those parts. And it was very, very flattering to me and saying that I had been raised in limelight and I had turned out well. And she hoped that her own children would do so. And almost said she would like for me to do, to be a model for them. Let's talk about that fateful day, November 22, 1963. Your parents were coming back to Texas. You were a student here at the University of Texas. I was at the University. A little bit about that day from your perspective before you heard the news that the president had been shot. What was happening for you that day? Well, I was really excited because the president was going to be coming, making a speech in Austin. I had a ticket to go to the dinner. And I had gotten one from Wory Lynn, who was my roommate. And that was very, very exciting. And of course, I thought he was just, oh, so exciting and wonderful and young. And I thought he cared about me. That's the kind of image that he projected, caring about individual people. And so I could hardly wait. And then after we had the dinner, I was going to get to go to the ranch. And the Kennedys were going to spend the night with us at the ranch. And that was a great treat. And I was going to get to go and be a part of this. So I was in class, and I came home in the lunch hour. And somebody asked me, they said, well, have you heard anything about how things were going in Dallas? And my mother had bought me the meal ticket, where you had breakfast and lunch and dinner in your dorm. And so I had lined up in Ken's Solving dorm where I was living to get my lunch. And I was apprehensive, concerned, I would say, because Dallas had not always been as friendly to my family as you wished. We felt very much at home in Austin and knew there were lots of people who loved us. And we had a lot of good friends in Dallas. But it had not been as friendly in 1960. And mother had been spat upon. And they had big signs down with Lady Bird. What was at the root of that hostility? There was a Republican congressman, the first Republican, Bruce Alger. And he led a group of women, very dressed up, kind of mint coated ladies. And daddy and mother were in one hotel. There were two big hotels. There was the Adolphus. And now I've forgotten what the other one was. But anyway, they were two big hotels. And daddy and mother were staying in one. And they were going to the other one. And as they came down and they were trying to walk across the main floor through the lobby, these people just accosted them. And were trying to block their way and had signs that were not nice. And daddy just said, it's a sad day when you can't walk your lady through the lobby of the Adolphus Hotel or whichever one it was. 50 years later, I have to tell you that that day, and the sad things that had happened, I've tried to dismiss. I've tried to think of the happy times that we had with President and Mrs. Kennedy and not the sad ones. But I was apprehensive. And even more recently than the 1960 campaign, Adlai Stevenson had been in Dallas. And he had not been treated very kindly by some people. And it was just nervous. And so I was very worried. When did you receive the news that something had gone awry in Dallas? Only by happenstance. This same person I mentioned, Warri Lynn, I had my lunch. And she now was in a different room in the dorm. And I went back up to my room as I did after lunch. I had a break before I went back to class. And I was just laying on the bed reading. And all the beds were built into the wall, those kinds of things. It was not a fancy room. I shared it with another person. And she called me on the telephone. And she said, stay where you are. I'm coming to get you. And that's all I remember she's saying. And it seemed that she had been walking across the campus and that she had heard, walking across, that the president had been shot. And so she went straight to the dorm and to her room, I guess, and called me, knowing that I usually ate lunch there, and called me. And then she came over. And she told me what she had heard and that there were people around the tower who were screaming and crying and so forth. I didn't know anything. And so she took me to a room. And I don't know whose room it was. But we had, in my room, we had no television. We had no radio. We had no communications. I wouldn't have known. And I was just casually reading some schoolwork when she found me. And so we went to this room. And the way I remembered it is the radio was on. And we heard that the president had been shot, that John Kennedy, that John Connolly, who I love, John Connolly was like an uncle to me. And I had spent many, many summers with him and his family and on his ranch. And his daughter had spent a lot of time in Washington with me. And so I was just terrified. And we fell on our knees and started crying and praying. Hope that it wasn't so. And they would say we don't know about the vice president. And there was even some word that he might have had a heart attack. But it was just horrible. And after a while, we heard, you know, man on the hall. Because in those days, kinsolving just had women. And you would have a communal shower and bathrooms on the hall. I happened to be in a suite. And I shared a bathroom with three other people. But girls, we ran around in our underwear. And so when a man came up on the floor, they would always precede them, telling us that we needed to get back to our rooms if we weren't dressed. And so a dorm mother came in with the Secret Service man. And then I knew it was real. And it must have happened. What did she say to you? I don't remember. I don't remember what he said to me. He said something I guess like, we have to go now. We have to leave. And I think he did. I don't know whether he told me that the president was dead. I don't remember what he said. I just remember he came and got me. And I said he said he had to take me away from there, because of course it was 300 girls, lots of windows. And I don't think we can really remember now how scared we all were. We didn't know what had happened. We didn't know if it was a conspiracy, if it was a terrorist taking over the government, if they were going to get everybody. And I was just scared to death. And I was both scared, mostly for my father and mother. But I was just in agony for the Kennedy family, because I loved them. I love President Kennedy. And so it was a mixture of being almost hysterical for your own self, but knowing that you had to try to put up a good front. You couldn't just scream and cry and let go. And I knew that Connelly and John, Governor Connelly, were Uncle Johnny, were in Dallas, and that he was severely injured. And so I thought the place I should go was to the governor's mansion, because that's where their children would be. And at least I knew my father was alive. And we didn't know what was going to happen to Uncle Johnny. And I also thought it might be a safer place to be, because it was the governor's mansion, and they did have troopers. And maybe it was safer. I had never spent any time there. I didn't know if they had bulletproof windows or anything, because that was something that we didn't think about in those days. At least I didn't think about it. And so I went there. And I thought I might be able to give some comfort to their children who are younger than me. Well, how are they feeling that day? What was their emotional state when you saw them? I think that we were all just very scared. To be honest, I think I really couldn't speak for the Connelly children, because I think I was so, here I went with the thought that I could give them some comfort, and I'm not at all sure. I gave them any comfort. I tried to put a good face on it, and I tried to be the older sister to Mark, and who was the youngest, and Mark, and Johnny, and Sharon. But I'm not sure I was at any help. Was part of the fear, lack of information, and thinking the worst of that day? Thinking the worst might have occurred? Yes, but the worst had occurred. The president had been shot and killed. By that time, we knew that part. I mean, we heard that while it was all confirmed. Because you have to remember, I probably got to Ken's solving a little after 12. I've just tried to blot the whole thing out of my memory, really. And it was just so horrible, and we were so scared, and we were so saddened. And I just felt personal loss, personal. President Kennedy was my friend. He was somebody that I loved. I knew him. He had been kind to me, and Mrs. Kennedy was almost my age, and to think that this horrible thing happened in Texas. And yes, I was worried about my parents. And while I was at the governor's mansion, they did call me. But it was a very short conversation, as I remember. We're on the plane. We're going back to Washington. We're all right. Daddy is OK. I don't remember whether I even spoke to Daddy. I do know I spoke to Mother. And they just reassured me that they were all right. And they indicated that they would call me later. They would talk to me more. But it was a very brief conversation. And that's the way I remember it. Whether that's exactly what happened, I don't know. So they went back to Washington aboard Air Force One after your father had been sworn into office on the ground above the field. Yes. And I didn't know anything. I mean, I learned that. I don't remember that they went through the details. And in hindsight, you just kept thinking, how could they have all gotten together after this horrible thing? And I always wondered, how in the world did they find the judge to get sworn in? How did they find Sarah Hughes in this massive humanity, in this terror, in this everybody running around? I mean, I knew how I was. And I was just so amazed, astonished, that they could all get together on that plane and find this woman, this judge to swear him in. Where did you go from the government? As your parents were going back to Andrews in Washington, you were at the governor's mansion. Where did you go from there? I don't know whether they asked me where I wanted to go or not, the Secret Service. But we went to the fifth floor. And that was at KTBC, which was the television station that we owned. And we had reserved a suite of room on the top of the building. And it was just a few blocks from the governor's mansion. And we went there. We, I mean, I went with the Secret Service there. And I had just packed a few clothes at Kim's Solving, just put in pajamas. And I don't even remember what other clothes I might have even put in. But I went to their apartment on the fifth floor. And I got Wari Lynn to come down and spend the night with me. And Wari says that she remembers the Secret Service actually sitting in chairs right in the room where we were sleeping in daddy's and mother's bed. But there was a big glass window in front of, in this room. And we didn't know what had happened. I don't remember them being in the room with us. I remember them taking me there and closing the drapes. But I don't really remember them being in the room with us. But she says that they really were. When your parents arrived back in Washington, they went to their home, the Elms, in the district? Yes. Did you talk to them further that evening after they arrived? To be honest, I don't remember it at all. I don't know what happened. I'm sure the Secret Service told me that they were safe and they were home in Washington at the Elms. Lucy remembers everything distinctly. I'd have to tell you that it was, I was here and I was scared. And I very much miss my parents. And I wished I could have been with them. And I know that they must have called and given me, or somebody called and gave me directions about what they wanted me to do. But the way I remember it is that my friend came and spent the night with me and somehow we got food. The Secret Service wouldn't let me leave the apartment. I couldn't go out to get anything. They wanted to keep me there and protect me. I think they didn't know what was going to happen. Was somebody, were there other people in Texas who were maybe going to try to harm the family? And so they just kept me secluded. Now the place I was was this apartment that I was used to being in. That I went to, when my parents were in town, they slept in their room. And then I had a room that had two single beds in it. And it was a very modest apartment. Had a living room. And I don't, just a little kitchen. I don't even remember it very much. But. Your sister Lucy was back in Washingtonville. Yes, she was in National Cathedral School. And she has very distinct memories of exactly what she did and how it happened. And I think she remembers the Secret Service man who came and got her. Although I have clear memories of the Secret Service who came with me back after Thanksgiving. And they were, but they became like brothers. They became very close. And several of them I still see and talk to and feel very close to. But I don't know who it was who took me away from Ken Solving or who was with me because there must have been more than one. At the fifth floor. But then I do remember that we were just glued to the television. Although it was horrible and I didn't want to see any of it. And I didn't, you know, you fought against that. You just couldn't stand to see it over and over again in President Kennedy and the car and everything. It was, you just, it just played on and on and on. And you felt though you had to be kind of watching it. And I do remember having the television turned on and seeing Oswald shot on television. And you just couldn't believe it. I mean, this was not pretend. He right in front of you, you were watching him being walked in and then you saw him shot. And that was just furthermore of the horror that you just couldn't imagine this happening. President Kennedy had been shot and this policeman had been killed. And John Connolly's life was in the balance. We didn't know what was going to happen to Uncle Johnny. And all the information I had was what I was getting from the television. And the Secret Service, some tried to fill me in. And they tried to shield me from some of it because they knew how horrible, how terrifying, how sad this was for me. But they, you know, I remember seeing it. And then I remember going, being called and said, my mother called me and she said, I know how much you loved President Kennedy. And he loved you too. Mrs. Kennedy had told her how much the president loved me. And I remember that. And just, I don't know when it was that she had told my mother but she had said that he really thought I was a wonderful, wonderful young lady. And she had almost said it kind of laughingly of if it wasn't for me, I was somebody that he thought was very attractive and that he cared about. And so she said, I know you'll want to come back for the funeral. And I remember going on an airplane, a commercial airplane. They didn't send a plane for me. I went on a commercial airliner. And we flew into Dulles. And it was the first time I ever remember flying into Dulles. I must have before, but I didn't remember it. And they stopped out on the runway. And they brought stairs up to the front like they would have for stewardesses or when they were loading food in up in the galley. And I remember that I went down those steps. And it was a big plane going all the way down those steps. And they put me in a black car with the Secret Service. And they drove me to the Elms. Which is your parents' residence. And it's the first time you saw your parents as they've been thrust dramatically into these new roles of president and first lady. Talk about that reunion. Well, I was just so glad to see them. And to see Lucy. I'd been separated from my family. And in hindsight, I found out that the people who'd been at the ranch, Bess Abel and some other people who had been there getting all ready for the weekend because they had made special arrangements. And we had a cook there who was cooking up a wonderful array of things for daddy and mother and me. And for the president, Mrs. Kennedy, and all the staff and everybody, they had been cooking for days and getting the ranch all beautiful. That somehow somebody sent a small private plane and flew them back to Washington. And in hindsight, I thought, why didn't they take me? Why did they leave me in Austin? Why did I not get taken away on Saturday or sometime? But I only knew that after I was already back. At least that's all I can remember. What were your parents' state of mind during those few days after the assassination? What can you tell us about that? Well, they were very comforting. I never saw my mother cry. I never saw my father. He was just, this is what we're going to do. This is what we should be doing. Very calm, very much in control. They asked me, did I want to walk? And I went to the White House, where President Kennedy was laying in state. And I was just overcome. But I just remember that somewhere I got a black suit and I guess a black coat, I don't know, but a coat. Because in Texas, it wasn't cold. And then, at least I don't remember it as being cold. And in Washington, it was cold and dreary. We just had to steal ourselves to not go to pieces. And that's the way I felt about mother and daddy. And when you saw Mrs. Kennedy, how she had such control and in what must have been just the most horrific thing to have happened for her to have been there and to have had her husband's body just explode around her. And she was not hysterical. How could we not be hysterical? How could we had to be in control? And I remember walking from the White House, all of us marching behind Mrs. Kennedy, daddy and mother and me and I guess Lucy. But I have to be honest and tell you that I don't even remember. I'm sure Lucy was there. And I do remember that the Secret Service were very concerned about daddy walking. And they didn't want him to walk because again, we did not know what was out there. And if somebody wants to kill you, you're exposed. The irony is that they had had rain in Dallas. And they'd had a wonderful day in Fort Worth and had a great breakfast that morning of the 22nd. And it was sunny and beautiful in Dallas. And I have read that Mrs. Conley said, oh, Mr. President, see how much Dallas loves you. Because there were so many people. They were lining the way. And mother had even looked out and I don't know if she waved, but had seen this lady who worked at Neiman Marcus, who was the fitter, fitted clothes for her and waved and was waving to the car. And it had been bright and beautiful. And then this horrible thing had happened. And because the weather had been beautiful, President Kennedy had said, let's take off the bulletproof roof. If it had just rained, if it had just kept raining, you wouldn't have had the crowds, but you would have had the bulletproof roof. And or at least a roof, it would have. And so we walked. And we walked to that church. And I remember. Yes, I'm going back to walking from the White House, all of us in silence, walking from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral for the funeral service. Your father defied Secret Service suggested guidance in walking behind the casket at a time. As you said, we didn't know if there was a greater conspiracy at play during that time. Why did he do that? Well, I think he felt like he loved John Kennedy. And I think he also wanted to show to the nation that he wasn't scared, that we all believed that we could live through anything, that this country was so strong, that it's horrible and terrible and sad, as this was, that we were going to survive. Mrs. Kennedy was leading us on. And she was there. And it might seem to some people that if he didn't walk, that he was a coward, that maybe. Now, the Secret Service didn't want him to do it, because they were scared. There might be some crazy person out there. And you couldn't protect us. There were crowds and people everywhere. And as we know, it just takes one person with a gun. And they couldn't. We didn't have magnometers and all those kinds of things. And there would have been no way to have controlled the crowds anyway. And so we were just putting ourselves in harm's way. But we had to do it. I think daddy wanted to show the country that we were going on and that there was a president. And this country was going to get through the most horrible thing that our generation, my generation, had ever seen. And it's a day that everybody, I think, of my generation anyway, of people alive, remember where they were, where did they hear the news? How did they hear it? Did you see a change in your father after he took on the role of president? Your father was a natural leader. There was, counsel, he was frustrated in the vice presidency. Did you see any palpable difference in him when he assumed the duties of president? Well, I think he was always a very strong leader. To me, he was soft. And he called me his 3D girl, daddy's darling daughter. And my parents had waited nine years for me. And my father always was affectionate and gave me lots of hugging and kissing and loving and we were really a touchy-feely family. We all hugged. But I think he didn't show any emotion. He was in control of his own emotions. And mother was too. And I think when you're around people who are that way that you feel that you have to try to pull together and react as well as you can. And it was right around Thanksgiving. And so we really just went through the motions. I remember we went to Arlington after the service. And the Kennedy family, they were all being so strong. And I think they gave strength to everybody else. I think that was a great gift that Mrs. Kennedy gave to everybody. When, after the assassination, do you have any memories of your parents looking back at it and thoughts they might have had about it in retrospect? Well, I'm amazed that my mother had the sense of history that she wrote down what she remembered and how it went and how she felt and memories of what happened in Dallas. She told me later that when I moved to Washington, because they told me then they wanted me to, I could finish up my semester. This is my sophomore year at the University of Texas, which I loved. And I love being in Austin. I loved being in charge of myself. I think you go away to college and you want to kind of prove that you can take care of yourself. And I enjoyed that. And I have to tell you that nobody knew. I was a nobody on campus. And there was the funny story at the university that when I came, somebody whispered in the dorm, they said, you know, Linda's the daughter of the vice president. And one of the girls said, the vice president of what? I mean, I was that anonymous. The vice president's daughter was, you know, nobody knew or cared. And all of this changed my life completely. And I think mother and daddy recognized that. And after the funeral was over, we talked about, OK, Linda, you can go back and finish the first semester of your sophomore year, because this was now the end of November. I stayed at the Elms. And we celebrated Thanksgiving there. And I was back in my room at the Elms. And I had the prettiest room. Mother said it was the prettiest home that we ever had. It was her favorite place. She loved it. And we had bought it. Daddy and mother had bought this house because they recognized that as vice president, they would have to do some entertaining. They would have to do some official things. And I remember one wonderful luncheon that we had there for. Mother was hosting for the wife of the Shah of Iran. And Mrs. Kennedy was unable to host this luncheon. And so mother had it in our home. And I guess maybe it was very exciting for me. So we went back to this house that we cared about. And we talked about how things were going to be different and that I should move up to Washington and go to college here in Washington. And I would go back after Thanksgiving and I could go back to the dorm. There would have to be these changes. The Secret Service were going to move into the dorm with me. And those days, as I said earlier, men didn't live in Kinsolving. And so I had all of December until school finished. And then we had exams in January, exams after Christmas. And so that period, I had Secret Service agents and they moved into the dorm because somebody had to be there 24 hours a day. And somehow Kinsolving dorm found a way to make it possible. There was a room as you entered and it had glass on it. And so the dorm mothers or the people who were taking care of the dorm could see people coming in and out. And the dorms, as I remember, you had to be in by 10 o'clock. It might have been 11. And then on weekends, it could be maybe 12 or 1. But they shut those doors and no men came in. And except these two or one Secret Service men who were there for me. And the girls in the dorm would start coming down after we got over the initial trauma. And they would come down and talk to them and sometimes bring them food. And we laughed and we said that I had to go back to Washington because all the Secret Service men were getting too fat. That the girls were coming down and saying, well, now they would want to introduce their boyfriends to the Secret Service and then they'd want to ask the Secret Service, well, what did you think about him? So after I came back, first I was in a dorm with 300 girls and I was on the third floor. And so they put cameras upstairs on the stairs because they had to make sure that nobody was going to be coming to my room and doing any harm to me. And the girls would hang their underwear on the cameras because they wanted their privacy back. And they kind of resented it. They thought it was funny, but they resented it. But it was clear that it was not going to be possible for me to remain in this dorm because there were too many doors, too many windows. We just really didn't know what was going on, what the dangers that were out there. So my parents talked to me about how I would have to move to Washington after December and move to the White House. And I don't remember going there at all. I mean, obviously I was there because I came there when President Kennedy was after the assassination. And I walked from there. But we didn't spend any time there between the funeral. And when I went back to Texas, I don't remember ever being there. If I was, I just blotted it out of my memory. And there was very much, it was a tug. You just felt like this had been carved into your heart. It was right there. And it was so traumatic. But you also felt that you had to put on the best face possible and be as strong as possible and not let the hysteria that you felt maybe inside take over. And so somehow we got through the funeral. And I went back to Texas and accompanied by these secret service agents still on public transportation, as I remember. And in hindsight, one of the things that was very interesting was that when Daddy met with President Nixon, one of the things he told President Nixon was, I think that you should let your wife fly on a government plane. Because during our presidency, Dang Daddy's presidency, mother would go to New York on the Eastern Shuttle. I would travel all over. I would have secret service with me. But we didn't use a government plane. We did it when we were with Daddy. And if there was a plane going to the ranch with things for him, I could ride on it and so forth. But I didn't have a government plane that flew me anywhere specifically. And so everything was so very different. All of a sudden, I go from being anonymous to being on this campus where people didn't know who I was and the secret service. And whereas they were wonderful to give me the security of knowing I was safe, they also stood out to some extent. Now they tried to have all the secret service I had, all the men were married. But they tried to pick young people that would blend in, rather than having an agent who was 45. They had an agent who was 30. I'm amazed now at how young these men were. I thought they were so old and I revered them and I minded them and I did what they told me to do. And after I grew up, I found out they were just a few years older than I was. But I was so immature socially. Intellectually, I was fine. I did very well. I was a bookish person. I didn't date very much. I went to what I had to with sorority mixers, but I didn't otherwise have very much of a social life. And I think the sorority loved me because I got very good grades and helped boost the average. But I remember one time I was in a class and the secret service would go to class with me and they would just sit in the back of the room and try to blend in. And one day in class, the professor said at the end of class, Ms. Johnson, would you please come up and see me before you leave? And I went up to see him and he said, there's a strange man in the back of the room. And I said, yes, I know he's my strange man because he was my secret service man and he would sit in there and they would laugh and say they were getting another college degree going to classes with me because they went, they were with you. Somebody was with you 24 hours a day. Now, obviously when you were sleeping, you were sleeping in your room and they weren't in the physical room with you. But when you went out, they went with you. When you had a date, they were with you. When you went to the movies, they were with you. When you went to class, they were with you. Any time you were doing anything public or where there were other people around, they were there. The most pressing thing your father had to do after the assassination was put together, but what became the Warren commission, a bipartisan group to look into the assassination to find out if there was a greater conspiracy at work. Of course, that report came back with the lone gunman theory, the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. Your father never, however, dispensed with the feeling that there might have been something greater at play during that day. Did he ever talk to you about his feelings about that? I heard that. I don't remember him particularly saying anything to me. I think the first thing that he had to do was reassure the country that we were gonna go on. This was such a traumatic thing for everybody. I mean, we had seen, you know, there were terrible things in the paper. I mean, these things against President Kennedy before he came that were made, that were handout, handbills, I guess you'd call them. But we really just couldn't imagine that there was anybody who would do anything like that. And we just couldn't imagine that this had happened. And I think everybody in this country, we were traumatized. So I think what he had to do, the most important thing he had to do was reassure all of us, everybody, that we were going to go on as a country. This, that nothing, even something as horrible as this was, could kill the government, could kill the resolve to go on. And we will all survive. And that's, I think, he put his arms around all of us to try to say, this is not the end of the world, as horrible as it is. And I think we needed that reassurance because I think everybody felt that, what is gonna happen? We were all just, huh, we were, and public hysteria almost. And I think what he could do that was the most important thing was to reassure us. And I remember going to hearing him saying that over and over that we're going to go on. I don't remember him saying anything specific about different programs or different things, but I do remember that it was very reassuring. He's stuck a rod up our backs and made us stand tall and made us feel that we were gonna get through this as horrible as it was, as scared as we all were, as horrified we were going to survive. And I think that's what allowed us to survive, to go on. And there was that reassurance that I think was the most important thing. Now, I did not, I did get a copy. I have a paper blue-covered, a paper-bound copy of the Warren Report, right hot off the press. And I think I might have signed my name across it. So, because I knew it was mine. I don't ever remember reading it. I have it, it's in the library, my copy. I didn't have the presence of mind as a history major even to go and say I wanna get everybody to sign this. In one way it was, I wanted to have it. In another way, I just didn't want to have to live through that again. I didn't want to go through every detail, every piece of it. And I know daddy had questions. We all did. We wondered if this could be Castro. Could this be something that he was getting even with, I didn't know this before, but I had heard afterwards that they were attempts to, to kill Fidel Castro that people in our government knew about. I don't think my father, I don't know if my father knew, but I do know, I heard those things. And so we were wondering, could the fact that Oswald had been in Russia, did the Russians have something to do with that? Did they have some plans behind it? I don't think we knew and we wanted to know, but I don't know that daddy was ever secure in the belief that there was just one gunman and nobody else was involved. I don't know. Interestingly enough, one of the secret servicemen who came to Austin with me was somebody that right after the assassination, he went to Marina Oswald. And I think he went to Oswald's, no, he was with Oswald's wife, maybe Oswald's mother, but that's where he went. You mentioned that John Kennedy was your friend, someone you admired greatly. What is your most vivid memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy? I don't know. I remember going to Boston, you know, they had this Boston to Austin axis. I remember during the campaign going, and I had my copy of Profiles and Courage, my little paperback and I asked him to sign it. I wish I knew where it was, somewhere in all the moving, because what happened after the assassination, mother moved our furniture, everything we had to the White House. And I had these beliefs that I would be moving into this beautiful, historic house with all of this gorgeous furniture. And I would be in a room where somebody, you know, another presidential child had lived, somebody famous had been in that room. And I was going to have furniture that had great historical memories associated with it. And when I came up in January, there was my same old furniture from my room at the Alms. And as mother said, it was store-bought. It was nothing, no antiques, nothing beautiful. It was this fruit wood desk and a chest of drawers and dresser. And it was marked up by all of my high school years of banging it in and out. And so I had a drawer that when I got something important like the Warren Commission, I would just put that book in a drawer and eventually when I got all the drawers full of historical memorabilia, I would send it to Dorothy Tirito, who was a woman who was collecting things for the library or for the archives for us because I didn't have any place in my room in the White House to save things. So somewhere, somehow, that wonderful copy of Profiles and Courage, which I had gotten Senator John Kennedy to sign for me when they, I think they had their last televised meeting in Boston together before the election. I have no idea where that copy went. I have the memories of being on the lawn with President Kennedy, with the pony. I have the memories of being invited to a White House, to White House occasions and seeing him. I remember very well the swearing in, so cold, so cold, and Daddy trying to put out the fires and trying to protect the papers of Robert Frost. And I remember my dear, sweet, wonderful Speaker Rabern who asked me to, when they had a prayer, all the men had to take their hats off. And it was so very cold. And so he said, Linda, would you stand in front of me and protect this bald head from this cold? And as you remember it, the inauguration of President Kennedy and Daddy, that it was very, very cold. And we were all freezing, even those of us who were up on the stands. And so he asked me if I would stand in front of him and block the wind. So I had these memories of President Kennedy making this speech to raise all of our aspirations, all of the hopes of this country. And then I had the memory of walking behind his body. So I had wonderful, both happy, wonderful memories of him and of Mrs. Kennedy and all of this tragedy all together. Linda, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.