Newsman recalls 'indelible' mark president's slaying left behind

Dan Rather said he had to lock down his emotions to focus on reporting.
WASHINGTON POST
For Dan Rather, Nov. 22, 1963, remains a vivid, detailed memory. "It's a rare day, a rare week, that I don't think about it. It left an indelible engraving on my id," he said, recalling the psychological and emotional impact of the event.
Rather, 72, was the network's New Orleans bureau chief and was in charge of CBS' coverage for President Kennedy's Texas trip.
"The main reason for the trip was to prepare for the re-election campaign," he said. The Kennedys "came down to try to heal some of the party rifts. It was the kind of pre-campaign trip that has now become common," Rather said.
"I did not foresee anyone taking a shot at the president. But any reasonably experienced reporter would've said the same."
Vantage point
Rather was near the railroad overpass, where the presidential motorcade was scheduled to end. His plan was to pick up film from the motorcade and take it to the network's local affiliate for processing, while the president continued downtown to the Dallas Trade Mart where he was scheduled to make a speech.
"Keep in mind, we were not on videotape then," he said. "It's hard for anyone who wasn't born at that time to realize this, but we were shooting film, which has to be processed before it can be edited."
To speed the process of getting the film into developing, said Rather, a roll or two would be picked up at drop points along the motorcade's route.
"We had our White House camera crew with the motorcade in the press truck," he said. "And they'd look for the person with the 'grapefruit bag'" -- a bright yellow mesh sack labeled with the CBS News logo, used to carry tapes or film -- "and throw the film.
"We didn't have anybody at the overpass, so I said I'd take a grapefruit bag and go there myself," Rather said. "I knew the motorcade was to end there, and I thought, they'll see the bag and throw the film."
Rather did not see or hear the shots. "It all happened in a matter of seconds. I was aware a police car had gone by very quickly, and I thought it took a wrong turn," he said. "Then I thought I saw the presidential limo, but was that it, I'm not sure. I didn't see the president. I thought I saw Jackie, but wasn't sure. It all went so fast. I just had a sense that something was very wrong."
Handling coverage
Rather, who "high-tailed it back to [CBS affiliate] KRLD, three or four blocks away," went on to report the story, working the phones, calling Parkland Hospital, where the president had been taken. Rather said he learned from several sources that the president was dead, despite no official announcement.
He was on an open phone line to CBS radio in New York. "I was shouting to people," Rather said. "One of the editors in New York said 'What have you got?' in reference to my saying I think the president is dead. I had said it without any passion; I wasn't trying to sell anything.
"And then I heard someone in New York say, 'Rather's saying he's dead.' Then I heard on the radio, the president is dead. In the confusion and shouting, they believed what I had told them, had reported, that Kennedy was dead."
Rather said it was "a very long wait between that time and the announcement, maybe 17 minutes before [Walter] Cronkite came on TV with it."
Rather recalled that "everyone was swamped, trying to get the facts: what about Jackie, the Connallys. There was a rumor every nanosecond, and you were trying to track down all of them. This was the occasion on which TV became the national hearth, and the coverage was widespread."
He still recalls his emotions that day. "When I realized the president was dead, I was literally shaken, " he said. "But in those seconds, you have two things that happen. Either your own emotions overwhelm you, or you get a grip and focus on what you're trained to do, which is focus on the story. You say, 'I can't deal with my emotions, I gotta seal them off and find out what the hell is going on, be careful not to make mistakes,'" Rather said.
But his thoughts were on more than the story. "It was a tremendous hit to the heart," Rather said. He and his wife, Jean, "had talked about the Kennedys. We were not big fans of theirs, but they were a young couple with young children. In that sense, all kinds of things flooded through my head that had less to do with JFK as president than as the father of his children."