Parkland Was Certainly Quite Proud of Itself Following the Shootings of Kennedy, Oswald

Had dinner at the folks' house last night, after which the boy and I went digging through a stack of old Dallas Newses and Times Heralds my dad keeps stashed in a closet, almost completely forgotten. They were my grandfather's and date back to November 22, 1963, and fast-forward through...

By Robert Wilonsky

August 5, 2011

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18855504",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17105533",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105532",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105535",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Had dinner at the folks' house last night, after which the boy and I went digging through a stack of old Dallas Newses and Times Heralds my dad keeps stashed in a closet, almost completely forgotten. They were my grandfather's and date back to November 22, 1963, and fast-forward through Nixon's resignation, the Bicentennial and a few other historic highlights. My dad later added to the pile the farewell copy of the Herald from December '91. Anyway.

As we were poring over the papers, a crinkled, yellowing slip of paper fell out of the Herald featuring Bob Jackson's iconic, Pulitzer-winning photo of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of DPD HQ. It was the memo C.J. Price, Parkland's administrator, sent to hospital staffers on November 27, 1963, documenting the week the was while pondering the following: "What is it that enables an institution to take in stride such a series of history jolting events?"

My mom worked at Parkland then -- she was the X-ray tech on duty when Kennedy was brought in -- and, till last night, she had no idea she'd even kept the memo. Read it for yourself after the jump.

November 27, 1963, Parkland Memo

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Dallas Observer has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.