'big Lover' Of Truth

Paxton: [W]e parked near the Hotel Texas. And we became part of the crowd that had gathered in the parking lot. I remember Kennedy walking across the street. He shook some hands and then went up on the podium. I'm not sure if it was [Senator Ralph] Yarborough or [congressman] Jim Wright who said a few words, but then LBJ went up there and introduced the president. I remember my dad was taking turns putting us up on his shoulders. He was getting fatigued, and there were these two African-American guys standing next to us. They said. "We'll take those boys." So I was sitting on a stranger's shoulders, but I could see Kennedy. He was there in his suit; the rest of them on the podium had raincoats on. He was jocular, in good spirits. Texas Monthly: How did you hear that he had been shot? Paxton: My dad took us to the Toddle House, and then he dropped us off at about ten a.m. We were going to St. Alice's, which was a Catholic school. I remember going out on the playground at recess. And then a bell rang. We came back in--this was one of those old cinder-block, one-story grade schools, with a central hallway and classes on both sides--and we were told to put our heads on our desks. The radio was on, and the nuns were all crying. Then it was announced that he had died in Dallas. I couldn't believe it. I'd seen him alive!