Brothers, from left, Daniel Darrouzet, Bob Darrouzet and John Darrouzet all had the chance to shake the hand of President John F. Kennedy hours before he was assassinated 50 years ago at the same spot on Lemmon Avenue where they posed Nov. 11.
On Nov. 22nd, 1963, I was a senior at Jesuit High School in Dallas. Our school was let out so we could see President and Mrs. Kennedy when they came to town. I came here with my family; my cousins, brothers, aunts, my mom.
There were 12-15 of us. We stood right here at the corner of Lemmon and Lomo Alto as the motorcade came by. Before it did, my aunt had gone across the street and bought some shelving paper and wrote a sign that said, “Please stop and shake our hands. JFK-LBJ 64.” We stretched the sign out in front of us and lo and behold, he read the sign as he was driving by and stopped the motorcade.
My brother Chris was taking video of all this with his movie camera. President Kennedy beckoned to us to come over. Being the oldest, I dropped the sign and ran right into the street, over to shake his hand. My brothers followed me as did my cousins. And then the Secret Service shooed us away. It was breathtaking. It was so wonderful. I got back into the car to go back to school. I turned on the radio and five minutes later I heard that he had been shot.
The emotions were all over the place, it was unbelievable. It really affected all of us in our family. I can still feel his hand in mine today. It was such a remarkable encounter.
