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Wednesday, Nov. 27, 1963 A Bright Texas Day And Everything Seemed Unreal By JIMMY B RES LIN In The New York Herald Tribune The call bothered Malcolm Perry. “Dr. Tom Shires, STAT,” the girl’s voice said over the page in the doctor’s cafeteria at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The "STAT” meant emergency. No body ever called Tom Shires, the hospital’s chief resident in sur gery, for an emergency. And Shires, Perry’s superior, was out of town for the day. Malcolm Perry looked at the salmon cro quettes on the plate in front of him. Then he put down his fork and went over to a telephone. “This is Dr. Perry taking Dr. Shires’ page,” he said. “President Kennedy has been shot, STAT,” the operator said. “They are bringing him into the emergency room right now.” Perry hung up and walked quickly out of the cafeteria and down a flight of stairs and push ed through a brown door and a nurse pointed to emergency room No. one and Dr. Perry walked into it. The room is narrow and has gray tiled walls and cream colored ceiling. In the middle of it, on an aluminum hospital cart, the President of the United States had been placed on his back and he was dying while a huge lamp glared in his face. TO START THE BREATHING John Kennedy already had been stripped of his jacket, shirt and T-shirt, and a staff doctor was starting to place a tube called an endotracht down the throat. Oxygen would be forced down the Breathing was the first thing to attack. The Presi dent was not breathing. Malcolm Perry unbuttoned his dark blue glen-plaid jacket and Local and Long Distance HOUSEHOLD MOVERS •42-1950 NIGHT 286-1490 ««2SBB^^JMbBP |WI WHY CALL LONG DISTANCE? Just caß 942-1950. Your friendly moving men at Durham Transfer and Storage will answer your calls, in Chapel Hill and Dur ham on direct lines. No charge for such calls. Durham Transfer & Storage *lb the only modern Furniture Storage Warehouse In Chapel BUI, We cordially Invite you to come by and Inspect the warehouse, 408 Brewer’s Lane. Agents for National Van Lines *Diwe Serving Thanksgiving DINNERS ■ » from noon ’til nine Delicious dining at usual moderate prices. For Reservations 9K3BP CALL 489-9128 H COUNTRY U) jnn”J RESTAURANT Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. 1 threw it onto the floor. He held out his hands while the nurse helped him put on gloves. The President, Perry' thought. He’s bigger than I thought he was. He noticed the tall, dark-haired girl in the plum dress had her husband’s blood all over the front of the skirt. She was stand ing out of the way, over against the gray tile wall. Her face was tearless and it was set, and it was to stay that way because Jacqueline Kennedy, with a ter rible discipline, was not going to take her eyes from her husband’s face. Then Malcolm Perry stepped up to the aluminum hospital cart and he took charge of the hope less job of trying to keep the 35th President of the United States from death. And now, the enormousness came over him. THE MOST IMPORTANT MAN Here is the most ; mportant man in the world, Perry thought. The chest was not moving. And there was no apparent heart beat inside it. The wound in the throat was small and neat. Blood was running out of it. It was running out too fast. The occipi toparietal, which is a part of die back of the head, had a huge flap. The damage a 25-caliber bullet does as it comes out of a person’s body is unbelievable. Bleeding from the head wound covered the floor. There was a mediastinal wound in connection with the bullet hole in the throat. This means air and blood were being packed to gether in the chest. Perry call ed for a scalpel. He was going to start a tracheotomy, w h i c h is opening the throat and insert- ing a tube into the windpipe. The incision had to be made below the bullet wound. “Get me Drs. Clark, McClel land and Baxter right away,” Malcolm Perry said. Then he started the tracheo tomy. There was no anesthesia. John Kennedy could feel nothing now. The wound in the back of the head told Dr. Perrvjtfaat the President never knl*w a thing about it when he was shot, either. / While Perry worked on the throat, he said, quietly; “Will somebody put a right chest tube in, please.” THE DISCIPLINED FACE The tube was to be inserted so it could suction out the blood and air packed in the chest and pre vent the lung from collapsing. These things he was doing took only small minutes, and other doctors and nurses were in the room and talking and moving, but Perry does not remember them. He saw only the throat and chest, shining under the huge lamp, and when he would look up or move his eyes between motions, he would see this plum dress and the terribly disciplined face standing over against the gray tile wall. Just as he finished the tracheo tomy, Malcolm Perry looked up and Dr. Kemp Clark, chief neuro surgeon in residency at Parkland, came in through the door. Clark was looking at the President of the United States. Then he look ed at Malcolm Perry and the look told Malcolm Perry some thing he already knew. There was no way to save the patient. “Would you like to leave, ma ’am?” Kemp Clark said to Jac queline Kennedy. “We can make you more comfortable outside.” Just the lips moved. “No,” Jacqueline Kennedy said. NOT A HEARTBEAT Now, Malcolm Perry’s long fingers ran over the chest under him and he tried to get a heart beat, and even the suggestion of breathing, and there was noth ing. There was only the still body, pale white in the light, and it kept bleeding, and now Mal colm Perry started to call for things and move his hands quick ly because it all was running out. He began to massage the chest. He had to do something to stimu late the heart. There was not time to open the chest and take the heart in his hands, so he had to massage on the surface. The aluminum cart was high. It was too high. Perry was up on his toes so he could have leverage. “Will somebody please get me a stool,” he said. One was placed under him. He sat on it, and for ten minutes he massaged the chest. Over in one corner of the room. Dr. Kemp Clark kept watching an electro-cardiogram for some sign that the massaging was creating action in the President’s heart. There was none. Dr. Clark turn ed his head from the electrocar diogram. ‘IT’S TOO LATE, MAC’ “It’s too late, Mac," he said to Malcolm Perry. The long fingers stopped mas saging and they were lifted from the white chest. Perry got off the stool and stepped back. Dr. M. T. Jenkins, who had been working the oxygen flow, reached down from the head of the aluminum cart. He took the edges of a white sheet in his hands. He pulled the sheet up over the face of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The IBM clock on the wall said it was 1 p.m. The date was Nov. 22, 1963. Three policemen were moving down the hall outside emergency room no. one now, and they were calling to everyone to get out of the way. But this was not needed, because everybody step ped out of the way automatically when they saw the priest who was behind the police. His name was the Rev. Oscar Huber, a small, 70-year-old man who was walking quickly. Malcolm Perry turned to leave the room as Father Huber came in. Perry remembers seeing the priest go by him. And he remem bers seeing that plum dress and that terribly disciplined face for the last time as he walked out Christmas Club Windfall Falls Some 196 members of North Carolina National Bank's Christmas Club here have re ceived checks totaling $17,957, J. T. Gobbel, senior vide presi dent of the bank, has announced. “This was part of a total of $2,257,952 saved up by 20,482 participants in Christmas Club programs in the 12 cities our bank serves,” Mr. Gobbel said. “It shows a big gain over 1962, ' when 17,876 persons received a total of $1,784,236 "This systematic way of put ting aside money benefits both the Christmas Club member and the merchants with whom he spends his money. THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY of emergency room no. one and slumped into a chair in the hall. Everything that was inside that room now belonged to Jacqueline Kennedy and Father Oscar Hu ber and the things in which they believe. “I’m sorry. You have my deep est sympathies,” Father Huber said. "Thank you,” Jacqueline Ken nedy said. Father Huber pulled the white sheet down so he could annoint the forehead of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Jacqueline Kennedy was standing beside the priest, her head bowed, her hands clasp ed across the front of the plum dress that was stained with blood which came from her husband's head. Now this old priest held up his right hand and he began the chant that Roman Catholic priests have said over their dead for centuries. “Si vivis. Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuus. In nomini Patris et Filio et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.” The prayer said, “If you are living, I absolve you from your sins. .In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.” OIL ON THE FOREHEAD The priest reached into his pocket and took out a small vial of holy oil. He put the oil on his right thumb and made a cross on President Kennedy’s forehead. Then he blessed the body again and started to pray quietly. "Eternal rest, grant unto him, oh Lord,” Father Huber said. “And let perpetual lisit shine upon him,” Jacqueline Kennedy answered. She did not cry. Father Huber prayed like this for 15 minutes. And for 15 min utes, Jacqueline Kennedy kept praying aloud with him. Her voice did not waver. She did not cry. From the moment a bullet hit her husband in the head and he went down onto his face in the MORE KINDS OF CHEVROLETS THAN EVER BEFORE! u irm Ask about a SMILE-MILE Ride and the Chevrolet Song Book at your Chevrolet dealer’s HARRISS-CONNERS CHEVROLET, Inc. Chapel Hill-Durham Blvd. Chapel Hill Phone 942*3191 Manufacturer’s License No. 110 back of the car on the street in Dallas, there was something about this woman that every body who saw her keeps talking about her. She was in shock. But somewhere, down under that shock some place, she seemed to know that there is away to act when the President of the United States has been assassin ated. She was going to act that way, and the fact that the Presi dent was her husband only made it more important that she stand and look at him and not cry. JACQUELINE’S THANKS When he was finished praying Father Huber turned and took her hand. “I am shocked,” he said. “Thank you for taking care of the President,'’ Jacqueline Ken nedy said. “I am convinced that his soul had not left his body,” Father Huber said. “This was a valid last sacra ment.” “Thank you,” she said. Then he left. He had been eat ing lunch at his rectory at Holy Trinity Church when he heard the news. He had an assistant drive him to the hospital immedi ately. After that everything hap pened quickly and he did not feel anything until later. He sat behind his desk in the rectory, and the magnitude of what had happened came over him. ‘Tve been ..a priest for 32 years,” Father Huber said. “The’first time I was present at a death? A long time ago. Back in my home in Perryville, Mo., I attended a lady who was dying of pneumonia. She was in her own bed. But I remember that. But this. This is different. Oh, it isn’t the blood. You see. I’ve annotated so many. Accident victims. I annotated once a boy who was only in pieces. No, it wasn’t the blood. It was the enormity of it. I’m just starting to realize it now.” Then Father Huber showed you to the door. He was going to say prayers. BACK TO HIS FAMILY It came the same way to Mal colm Perry. When the day was through, he drove to his home in the Walnut Hills section. When he walked into the house, his daughter, Jolene, six and a half, ran up to him. She had papers from school in her hand. “Look what I did today in school, daddy,” she said. She made her father sit down in a chair and look at. her school work. The papers were covered with block letters and numbers. Perry looked at them. He thought they were good. He said so, and his daughter chattered happily. Malcolm, his three-year-old son, ran into the room after him, and Perry started to reach for him. Then it hit him. He dropped the papers with the block num bers- and letters and he did not notice his son. “I’m tired,” he said to his wife, Jenntae. “I've never been tired like this in my life.” Tired is the only way one felt in Dallas yesterday. Tired and confused and wondering why it was that everything looked so different. This was a bright Tex as day with a snap to the air, and there were cars or> the streets and people on the sidewalks. But everything seemed unreal. At 10 a.m. we dodged cars and went out and stood in the middle lane of Elm St., just before the second street light; right where the road goes down and, 20 yards further, starts to go under the overpass. It was right at this spot, right where this long crack ran through the gray Texas as phalt, that, the bullets reached President Kennedy’s car. UGLY FACTORY WINDOWS Right up the little hill, and towering over you, was the build JET-SMOOTH LUXURY CHEVROLET 15 models. Four series. One brand-new series—the Impala Super Sports. More luxury, too. Even the Biscaynes are now fully carpeted. Plenty of power. Seven different engines’ worth—l4o hp to extra-cost 425 hp. Model shown—lmpala Sport Coupe TOTALLY NEW CHEVELLE! 11 models in three series. An entirely new line of cars sized a foot shorter than most big cars, so you get the handling ease of most smaller cars. But don’t sell it short! Most Chevelle models seat six people and tote all the luggage those six can carry. Engine choice: 120 hp to extra-cost 220 hp. Model shown—Malibu Sport Coupe NEW CHEVY II Six models. Two series—Nova and Chevy II 100. Both now offer an extra-cost 195- hp V 8 or a 155-hp six, to give you more Chevy II power than ever before. Match this added power with Chevy II thrift, and you can see why Chevy II will be harder than ever to keep up with this year. Model shown—Nova t-Door Sedan NEW CORVAIR Seven models in four series. Plus two Greenbriers. A new standard 95-hp engine (nearly 19% livelier). A 110-hp engine available at extra cost on all Corvairs and a 150-hp Turbo charged engine under the deck lid of the Monza Spyder. Styling? Never been cleaner. Interior? Never been brighter. Fun to drive? Never been more so. Model shown—Monza Club Coupe NEW CORVETTE Two models—the Sport Coupe with a new one-piece rear window plus improved inte rior ventilation, and the dashing Sting Ray Convertible. Both boast smoother rides and improved sound insulation. Both go with your choice of four big VB’s, including a new extra-cost 375-hp engine with Fuel Injection. Model shown—Sport Coupe ing. Once it was dull red brick- But that was a long time ago when it housed the J. W. Deere Plow Co. It has been sandblast ed since and now the bricks are a light rust color. The windows on the first three floors are cov-~ ered by closed Venetian blinds, but the windows on the other' floors are bare. Bare and dust streaked and high. Factory win dow high. The ugly kind of fac tory window. Particularly at the corner window on the sixth floor, the one where this Oswald and his scrambled eggs of a mind stood with the rifle so he could kill the President. You stood and memorized the spot. It is just another roadway in a city, but now it joins Ford’s Theater in the history of this' nation. “R. L. Thornton Freeway. Keep Right,” the sign said “Stem mons Freeway. Keep Risit,” an other sign said; You vent back between the cars and stood on a small grassy hill which overlooks the road. A red convertible turn ed on to Elm St. and went down the hill. It went past the spot with the crack in the asphalt and then, with every foot it went, you could see that it was getting out of range of the six-floor window of this rust-brick building behind you. A couple of yards. That’s all John Kennedy needed on this road Friday. CASKET FOR THE PRESIDENT But he'did not get them. So LUCKY WITH MONEY! Safest way to be sure . . . take out enough life insurance today. Hd jB K *4r~ ; GEORGE L. COXHEAD, C.L.U. NEW YORK LIFE . Bk insurance company (Hylic) PHONE 942-4358 (Over the Dairy Bar) * TffHPK: ""44 Mmt when a little bit after 1 o'clock Friday afternoon the phone rang in the Oneal Funeral Home, 3206 Oak Lawn, Vernon B. Oneal answered. The voice on the other end spoke quickly. “This is the Se- - cret Service calling from Park land Hospital," it said. "Please select the best casket in your house and put it in a general coach and arrange for a police escort and bring it here to the" hospital as quickly as you hu manly can. It is for the Presi dent of the United States. Thank you.” The voice went off the phone. Oneal called for Ray Gleason, his bookkeeper, and a workman to help him take a solid bronze cas ket out of the place and load it onto a hearse. It was for John i Fitzgerald Kennedy. Yesterday, Oneal left his shop early. He said he was too tired to work. Malcolm Perry was at the hos pital. He had on a blue suit and a dark blue striped tie and he sat in a big conference room and looked out the window. He is a tall, reddish-haired. 34-year-old, who understands that everything he saw or heard on Friday is a part of history and he is trying to get down, for the record, everything' he knows about the death of the 35th President of the Untied States. "I never saw' a President be fore.” he said. Page 1-B
The Chapel Hill Weekly (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 27, 1963, edition 1
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