Remembering JFK

Laguna Beach Independent Dec. 1

Opinion: It’s personal. Remembering JFK

By Denny Freidenrich

Nov. 22 was the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. I was only 15 at the time, but I remember that date like it was yesterday.

The young president’s murder was a turning point for me and baby boomers everywhere. Scenes of the smiling Kennedy waving from his car and the aftermath of his death were televised non-stop for days. Ditto Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald and the president’s funeral. There was no escaping the news. I still can see the banner headlines in the afternoon newspapers: “Kennedy Shot” or “Kennedy Dead.” Yes, in many cities back then, you read one paper in the morning and another before dinner.

America not only mourned the death of the president, but I think it’s fair to say the nation, as a whole, fell into a deep depression. I know that was the case at my house.

My father was a delegate to the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Democratic National Conventions. He met then-Sen. Kennedy at the ’56 convention in Chicago. Two years later, my dad and two of his political cronies were invited to meet JFK in his hotel suite in San Francisco. It wasn’t your typical meeting by any stretch. Kennedy, dressed only in a t-shirt and boxer shorts, sat on the edge of the bed and asked them, “Do you want Lyndon Johnson to be the next president?” They all shook their heads. “Good, then you’ll be Kennedy delegates.” They all said yes.

And support him they did. During a televised news conference the day before JFK officially became the Democratic Party’s nominee, I heard my father over the airwaves. “Down in front,” he shouted at a reporter. There was no mistaking his voice. I’d heard it many times as he sat in the stands watching my Little League games.

On Sept. 3, Kennedy made a campaign stop at the San Francisco Airport. My dad took me with him to watch. It turns out I not only heard JFK speak from the tarmac, I actually shook hands with him afterward. I was almost 12, but I remember looking up and thinking, “All is right with the world.”

It was the same two months later when my parents took me to the Cow Palace Auditorium on Nov. 2. That was the night Kennedy first proposed “a peace corps of talented men and women” who would dedicate themselves to the progress and peace of developing countries. My mom and dad sat in the VIP seats near the stage, and I was in the rafters, but that didn’t matter to me. It was days before the election, and I was sure JFK would win. When he did, there was much celebrating in our house.

I was a sophomore in high school when the horrible news came in from Dallas. An hour after the announcement, school was closed. By the time I arrived home, my mother was in tears. I don’t remember my father coming home until dinner time. He hardly spoke a word. In fact, he hardly spoke all weekend. It was the first time I witnessed real grief.

I can’t believe 60 years have passed since President Kennedy’s assassination. Nationally syndicated columnist George Will once wrote, “The bullets fired on Nov. 22, 1963, shattered the social consensus that characterized the 1950s … because powerful new forces were about to erupt through society’s crust. Foremost among these forces was the college-bound population bulge — baby boomers with their sense of entitlement and moral superiority …”

That may or may not be true. All I know is JFK’s murder was like a death in my family. It’s something I always have taken personally. The way I look at it, writing about politics, like I do today, is my way of honoring the memory of my dad, as well as the spirit of the presidential candidate I remember meeting oh-so-many years ago.

Denny Freidenrich is a long-time Laguna Beach resident. He has been politically active his entire adult life, having first served as a congressional staff assistant on Capitol Hill in 1972. In 1975, he created the California Voter Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging high school students to become active voters when they turned 18.

A decade later, he was retained by Laguna and three other beach cities to coordinate Orange County’s opposition to offshore oil drilling. Back in 2007, Freidenrich was among the first Democrats in OC to support Barack Obama’s campaign for president.

During the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he rewrote the lyrics to the 1960s civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” Lately, he has been publicly urging President Biden to convene a gun summit at Camp David.