THE
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
6-fth Year No. 139
NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1963
Per Copy 15c
Lyndon Baines Johnson Is Now
President of The United States
DALLAS (iP> — Lyndon Johnson
automatically became President
with Kennedy’s death. The Presi
dential oath which he took later
^ .m
LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON
at the Dallas airfield is:
“I do solemnly swear that I will
faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States, and
will to the best of my ability,
preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States.”
At six feet three, weighing close
to 200 pounds, Johnson has al
ways been supercharged with en
ergy.
He has been called self-centered
and considerate, a humanitarian
and power-hungry; a shrewd op
portunist and a political genius;
tough and yet vulnerable; vain,
friendly, sensitive, flamboyant.
Friends and others who watched
him on his rise over the decades
agreed that he was just flexible
enough, or human enough, to have
been all of those things at one
time or another.
Johnson once said of himself:
"I am a free man, an American,
a United States Senator, and a
Democrat, in that order.
“I am also a liberal, a conser
vative, a Texan, a taxpayer, a
rancher, a business man, a con
sumer, a parent, a voter, and not
as young as I used to be nor as
old as 1 expect to be —- and am
all those things in no fixed order.”
Present at the swearing in of
Johnson were Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs.
Johnson, several staff members and
several Congressmen.
Johnson asked as many of the
White House people as possible to
crowd into the executive suite of
the plane to witness the ceremony.
Judge Hughes wept as she ad
ministered the Presidential oath
to Johnson.
The Presidential plane took off
immediately for Washington with
Johnson, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs.
Kennedy and some White House
aides aboard.
Lyndon Johnson made his first
statement as President after fly
ing in from Dallas with the sad
cargo of the Presidential plane.
Before beginning his talk, John
son pulled his wife closer. Then,
with a grim expression on his
face, he began slowly his first
statement as President of the
United States.
Johnson said this is a sad time.
He said the country has suffered a
sad loss and he has suffered a
personal one. The world shares the
loss, he said, with Mrs. Kennedy.
He went on:
“I will do my best — that is all
I can do. I ask your help and
God’s.”
After his brief statement, John
son spoke briefly with Congres
sional leaders.
Then Johnson slowly made his
way through the crowd to the Pres
idential helicopter, shaking hands
with a few friends along the way.
With Mrs. Johnson leading the
way, he climbed into the heli
copter and soon wras on his way
to the White House.
Cardinal Cushing Will
Officiate at D.C. Funeral
BOSTON (Jft — A funeral mass
will be said Monday in the
Shrine of the Immaculate Con
ception, Washington, D.C., for
President Kennedy by Richard
Cardinal Cushing of Boston.
A spokesman for the Cardinal
said the mass will be at 1 p.m.
and there will be no eulogy.
The mass will be what is called
a low mass with only the Cardinal
officiating in contrast to the cus
tomary solemn high mass of re
quiem sung by three clergymen.
There is no information on the
possible place of burial of the
President.
The Cardinal, a longtime friend
of the Kennedy family, gave the
invocation at the President’s in
auguration, officiated at his mar
riage, baptized the two Kennedy
children, and presided at the fu
neral mass for Patrick Bouvier
Kennedy, the first family’s son
who died within 40 hours after
birth last August.
-----*
Slaying Suspect
Is Apprehended
DALLAS, Tex. — Dallas police
have arrested a 24-year-old man,
Lee H. Oswald, of Fort Worth,
Tex., in connection with the slay
ing of a Dallas policeman. Oswald
was pulled screaming and yelling
from a theater in the Oak Ciff sec
tion of Dallas.
He brandished a pistol which
officers took away from him after
a scuffle. A policeman who was
cut on the face in the scuffle,
quoted Oswald as saying: “Well,
it’s all over now.”
Oswald, who said two years ago
he wanted Russian citizenship — is
being questioned in the Kennedy
assassination. The shooting of the :
policeman was in another part of j
Dallas, some time after the Presi- I
dent was killed.
The officer who was- slain, J. D.
Tippet, had been killed by a man
answering the description of Os
wald in the neighborhood a short i
time before. Tippet had been slain
with a pistol.
The shots that killed President
Kennedy came from a textbook
storage building which had a clear j
view of his motorcade. An old 30
caliber rifle with telescopic sights
and spent cartridges were found in
the building.
A photographer for the Dallas
! Times Herald, Bob Jackson, said
! he looked around as he heard the
■ shots and saw a rifle barrel dis
! appear into an upper floor win
dow. He did not see the gunman.
Oswald reportedly worked in the
textbook building. Police say he
denies any part in the assassi
nation.
Egan Tells Sorrow
JUNEAU UP — Gov. William A.
Egan today expressed deep feeling
over the death of President Ken
nedy. Reached shortly after word
of the President’s death was re
ceived, the Governor said:
“I know this is a day of great
sorrow for all Alaskans as- well
as all Americans and freedom
loving peoples everywhere.
Stale Offices Close
JUNEAU M — Gov. Egan or
dered all state offices closed at
noon today, in memory of Presi
dent Kennedy.
Egan urged that all Alaskans
attend memorial services for the
President, in churches of their
choice.
Free World Stunned Alter
Unknown Assassin Slays President
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, the 35th President of the
United States, has been assassinated.
He died in the Dallas, Texas, Parkland Hospital at 2 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time, as result of a gunshot wound in the head.
Texas Governor John Connally, riding with the President and
his wife, was also shot, and remains in the Parkland Hospital.
A sniper with a high-powered rifle shot President Kennedy
to death as he rode in a motorcade out of downtown Dallas. Gov
ernor John Connally of Texas, riding with him, was wounded. As
the President was rushed to a hospital, Mrs. Kennedy, holding his
blood-stained head, kept crying "Oh. no!" Kennedy died of a
shot in the brain at the age of 46.
When the shooting occurred, Kennedy fell face-downward in
the back seat of his car. Blood could be seen on his head. Governor
Connalh remained half-seated, slumped toward the left, with blood
on his face and forehead.
When Mrs. Kenned) reached the hospital, her clothing was
covered with blood from her husband's wound.
A tracheotomy was performed to assist the President’s breath
ing. An oxygen machine was used and blood and fluid also were
! administered. An electrocardio
, graph machine was attached to
record any heart beat. Doctors said
the entrance wound was in the
front of the head.
The President was administered
i the last rites of the Roman Cath
olic Church by two priests shortly
after he was carried into the hos
pital. A doctor said the President
lost consciousness as soon as he
was hit and never revived. The
doctor said: “We never had any
hope of saving his life.”
He died about 30 minutes after
he was shot ... at 2 p.m. EST.
Democratic Senator Ralph Yar
borough of Texas, riding in the
third car behind the President in
the motorcade, told of hearing
three shots as the motorcade left
downtown Dallas through a triple
underpass. The shots apparently
were fired from above, from a
nearby building.
Governor John Connallv of Tex
as is reported in satisfactory con
dition. The doctors who operated
on him say it’s expected he will
completely recover without a dis
ability of any sort. It's believed
he'll be able to leave the hospital
after ten days or two weeks.
Connallv underwent surgery af
ter being hit by one bullet as he
rode beside President Kennedy.
Doctors said the bullet entered
the back of the chest, emerged
from his body, struck his wrist and
entered the thigh.
His doctors say: “He has been
given transfusions to replace lost
blood. He’s fully conscious. The
?>
I bullet is still in his thigh. He has
not been told of the President’s
I
j death.
An intensive search is under
j way for the assassin. There were
only sketchy descriptions to go
I
JOHN H i iLOfcrt/\LL) KtNNtUY
35th President of the
United States
by: of a white man, about 30
years of age, of slender build
and weighing about 165 pounds.
The Secret Service, the FBI and
the Dallas police swung into ac
tion within seconds after the fatal
shots were fired in Dallas. They
j are joining in what is perhaps the
I biggest and most determined man
t hunt in this nation’s history.
The President’s mother and
1 father learned of the tragedy from
■ a workman at their home in Hy
annis Port, Mass. The President’s
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