9: JFK SLEPT HERE

I had visited the hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead and I stood on the spot where he was shot; but as my sightseeing window was closing fast on that trip, I asked Kim Johnson for one last favor: Please take me to Fort Worth so I can see where JFK spent his last night on earth and where he delivered the final speech of his life.

From Dealey Plaza in Dallas to the Hilton Fort Worth hotel, the distance was a little over 30 miles. Kim had us into downtown Fort Worth in an impressive 35 minutes and before I knew it, I was once again standing in the footsteps of Presidential history.

At 8:49am on the morning of November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered an unscheduled speech in the light drizzle to about 2,000 people near the front entrance of the Hotel Texas; now known as the Hilton Fort Worth. As I stood close to that very spot where JFK gave his speech, which was the second-to-last speech he would ever give, it was as though I could see and hear him standing in front of me.

When we were finished at the speech site, I was carried past the hotel’s front entrance to an area known as General Worth Square where we found a memorial to our 35th President called the ‘JFK Tribute’. Featuring an eight-foot tall statue of Kennedy in the center, the memorial also highlighted the President’s 1963 visit to Fort Worth with photographs and famous quotes. As I stood there for a moment in awe looking at the tall bronze figure of JFK, one quote that was engraved into the wall behind the figure resonated with me. It read: “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”

After reading that quote, an idea popped into my resin-filled head: I wanted to go inside the hotel and visit the ballroom where JFK gave his final speech of his life. I also needed to find the suite where the President and Mrs. Kennedy spent the night of November 21, 1963. After all, that was their last night together.

Back in my protective case, I was carried into the Hilton. It took a little bit of searching, as the building was large, but within ten minutes my photographer found the Crystal Ballroom where President Kennedy delivered the last speech of his life. However, there was a problem – a program being conducted in the room and there were hundreds of young girls roaming around. My photographer carried me to the table at the ballroom’s entrance and he asked the young woman in charge of tickets if he could go inside without paying the $10 fee as he simply wanted to photograph a bobble head inside the Crystal Ballroom. She looked confused and replied, “You want to take a picture of what inside there for why?” At that moment, my photographer recited the same spiel that he gave at Parkland Hospital earlier in the day; only this time he mentioned that Kennedy attended a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the Crystal Ballroom and delivered his last speech of his life there and he wanted to photograph the bobble head in the room because it was a historic Presidential site. She said in astonishment, “I had no idea that Kennedy was in this room in 1963, that’s really cool. I would like to go in there with you to see the room for myself and to see the bobble head, too; but we will have to wait for a break in the dance performance so we don’t interrupt them. All I ask is please don’t get any of the dancers in the photo.” After a five-minute wait, I was carried into the Crystal Ballroom; or at least a partitioned section of the ballroom. As I was removed from my case, I was disappointed because the room didn’t look as elegant as I thought it would be. With no time to waste during the short intermission, I was held near a wall of the room and I was photographed. Was that the location where JFK gave his speech in 1963? It was highly unlikely, but we had no way of knowing for sure. There were, however, two things we did know for sure: We were in the hotel’s Crystal Ballroom; and my photographer could talk his way into going anywhere with me!

Although the visit to the ballroom was a semi-success, there was still some unfinished business inside the hotel: I wanted to see the Presidential Suite. The concierge told my photographer that Suite 850, where the President and Mrs. Kennedy stayed on the night of November 21, 1963, no longer exists. The room was destroyed during renovations that were completed in 1981. “We do have a Presidential Suite today that represents Kennedy’s room from ’63; it’s Room 1530 and you can see the outside of the room if you’d like.” said the concierge. “You can’t go inside, however, because there’s a guest in there now.”

We took the elevator to the 15th floor and easily found Room 1530. Sure enough, there was a small plaque on the left side of the double wooden doors that featured an image of JFK above the number 1530. Although we knew that this room was never occupied by the President, I posed for a photograph anyway.

As I was carried out of the former Hotel Texas, I envisioned that we were taking the same path that President Kennedy walked when he left the hotel for the motorcade that took him to Air Force One and his short trip to Dallas and into infamy.

I had spent about five hours visiting Kennedy sites in Dallas and Fort Worth, but it definitely wasn’t enough time and I knew I had to return at some point to the Lone Star State.

We spent the night at the home of Bill and Kim Johnson in Plano, Texas; which was cool because it gave my photographer’s wife Vicki a chance to visit family, including Kim’s mother Sally who lives in Plano as well. It was a whirlwind trip; but I managed to pack a lot of sites into a small window.

As I stood silently on a bedroom dresser throughout the night, I reflected about what I saw that afternoon. It was still hard for me to believe that I had stood at the exact location where President Kennedy had met his fate.  Had I stayed on the ‘X’ a minute or two longer, I likely would have met my fate there as well.  Not from a Mannlicher-Carcano’s bullet, however, but from the Goodyear tires of a speeding car.

Kim drove us to DFW airport the next morning for the flight back to Michigan. Unlike my trip to Ohio the year before, my body managed to stay in one piece in Texas; which was good because I don’t enjoy going under the surgeon’s glue stick. My next trip, which would take me to upstate New York, was only three months away and I couldn’t wait!