"November 22, 1963 was a day that changed American culture forever, many historians even look at this day as the time that America lost its �innocence�. For it was on this unforgettable day that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The abrupt change in leadership, future foreign policies which led to the Vietnam War was proof that the country was in for a great change.

For Lowena Yahola Birdsong, it was great change as well, four years earlier Birdsong had come from Okemah, Oklahoma to Dallas to visit her sister and her husband. The couple had been living there because of a work relocation program which would eventually make Birdsong�s brother in-law a trained electrician. Birdsong liked the Dallas area and decided to stay and make Texas her home. The next year, Birdsong would find a job with the Dallas Police Department. Birdsong had found a job with the force doing clerical and administrative work in the beginning, but eventually she would handle the responsibilities of communications, records, and dispatch as well. Birdsong realized she had found a job she enjoyed, and wanted to make a long term career of it. The work choice would eventually allow her to be accepted to officer�s school and become a full fledged member of the Dallas Police Department.

But in 1963, Birdsong was handling inter-office duties and looks back on that time and remembers the day as being �pleasant and nice� for a late November. It was a Friday, her work schedule at that time was the �graveyard� shift, so Birdsong was slowly starting her day. Taking her time getting out of bed and eventually getting around to turning on the television to see what was happening in Dallas that early afternoon.

Birdsong, along with the rest of the Dallas police force and surrounding city officials had received a memo earlier in the week that the U.S. leader would be in town, and that Kennedy would be visiting nearby Ft.Worth, then make his way to Dallas before leaving.

The fateful event would be documented as occurring at 12:30 central standard time. Birdsong, like the rest of the world, would be given the news by a shocked and saddened television newsman Walter Cronkite. The President was shot just 20 blocks west of where Birdsong was living at the time."

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Creek-Seminole Lady remembers Kennedy assassination (The Native American Times 11/21)