News
Remembering JFK 50 years later
Scott Wagar
11/19/2013
For one man in Bottineau, going through his family’s cedar chest he discovered a special item that affected the entire country 50 years this week when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, an item that brought a stream of memories back for him on that terrible November day when Kennedy lost his life.
Joel Stevenson, owner of the Bottineau Theatre and Stevenson’s Towing, discovered a pristine special edition of The Saturday Evening Post dedicated to Kennedy weeks after his assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald.
“It was in my mother’s cedar chest. She had passed away last year and I was just going through some of her stuff when I found the magazine,” Stevenson said. “My mom, like everybody in the nation, liked him and kept this edition. She was a subscriber far back and had The Saturday Evening Post while she was still living at home on the farm north of Willow City. They always had The Post, but this one was special to her and she kept this specific one because it was Kennedy.”
Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, is a day that literally stopped time for Stevenson (and all of America), who was in elementary school when Kennedy was assassinated.
“When he died, I was in the fourth grade in Tenino, Wash., and we were all sent home from school that day,” Stevenson said. “We didn’t come back to school I think until five days later.”
THE NATION
Like the grade school in Tenino, the death of Kennedy was such a serious event in the country the entire nation shut down and went into mourning.
“It was a terrible thing,” Stevenson said. “You could feel how sad everybody was. It was really intense. It was a hard time.”
Two days later, on an early Sunday afternoon, Stevenson would see another significant event in the country’s history when he personally witnessed seeing Oswald being shot and murdered by Dallas resident Jack Ruby while being transferred to a more secure jail from the Dallas Police Headquarters.
“I was watching t.v. when they brought Oswald down,” Stevenson said. “I saw him get shot on TV.”
KENNEDY EDITION
The special edition, which has a portrait of Kennedy on the front cover illustrated by Norman Rockwell, is considered one of the greatest issues ever published by The Saturday Evening Post. Inside its pages, which is twice the size of The Post today, are large black and white photos, some of which show the president’s motorcade, his assassination, the president’s funeral, the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson as president and the murder of Oswald by Ruby. Such individuals as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ralph McGill and Arthur M. Schlesinger also wrote articles on Kennedy.
Today, a first edition of this copy of The Saturday Evening Post goes for sale at auctions anywhere from $25 to $125.
THE POST
The Saturday Evening Post was founded in 1821 and became the most subscribed weekly publication in America. It was a weekly magazine from 1897 until 1969 when it became a quarterly publication. It is currently a bi-monthly periodical which continues to have a well established readership.
The Saturday Evening Post is best known for discovering New York artist Norman Rockwell, who in his 50 year career with The Post painted over 300 covers for the magazine.
Stevenson, who said that he was surprised to find the Kennedy edition, and in such good condition, said he has special plans for his family’s Post.
“I plan to put it back in the cedar chest and keep it safe,” he said.