But a week and a half later, after I returned to my parents home for Thanksgiving, I answered our single phone at the bottom of the staircase. From The New York Times Magazine April 30, 1995. Appendix 13: Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. He said that he had been in jail for hours doing this scene - that had been in handcuffs since dawn, that hed been beaten up and spit at - and that he had come to really empathize with what had happened to my father, and that now, looking at his wife and daughter, it really broke his heart to know what we had all gone through. Marguerite Claverie, the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in New Orleans in 1907,1 into a family of French and German extraction. She seemed happy for the company. . Oswald killed Tippit with his mail-order revolver (1:15 pm). Marina, already thin, appeared extremely gaunt; she was having difficulty breast-feeding Rachel, her younger daughter, who was not yet 5 weeks old. Watch on. Americans are so spoiled. Yes he had June and Rachel, they stayed with Marina Oswald, who remarried around 1966, so they grew up with a stepfather who by all accounts was a decent man, raising the girls in a protective environment. And again, in 1996,she claimed that she was part of the system that had railroaded her deceased husband, whom she claimed was a patsy, according to The Independent. www.imdb.com. The way I finally woke up was, one night he said, "I'm gonna sell an article to Penthouse or Playboy"- I forget which - "and it's about your mother. I know that in my life, Lee wasn't a good man. Thanks for this. We do not support the individual. In 2003 a reporter for The Independent drove to her home to talk to her, only to be told that she wasn't interested in talking. She wore a purple dress from a vintage clothing store, platform shoes, and a black string choker. I started worrying about, first of all, do I have a responsibility to tell them? I accepted her gift gratefully and noticed that Bouhe and Meller seemed to have provided a playpen, used clothes and other amenities in the Oswald home. A single armed detective patrolled the grounds as Marina chain-smoked and drank coffee and was asked questions about Lees rifle, a photo of him holding the assassination weapon and his various associates. Americans are so spoiled. A special Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, better known as the Warren Commission because it was headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, investigated from November 29, 1963, to September 24, 1964, and concluded that Oswald alone had fired the shots killing Kennedy and that there was no evidence that either Oswald or Ruby had been part of any conspiracy. The assassination has also been a constant in the life of June Oswald Porter, the 33-year-old daughter of Lee Harvey Oswald. Just out of the blue. Lee Harvey Oswald's 'reclusive' widow Marina pictured for first time in 25 years No-one gives the 72-year-old gran a second glance as she slowly walks across a Walmart car park in a small town in . A: It has put certain strain on it. (At the time, I didnt realize he hadnt graduated from high school.) Both interviews I found in the JFK collection at the Dallas Public Library last November. He treated her Russian friends poorly, she said, and tried to keep her isolated in the house, doing the grocery shopping himself. The couple got married during Lees temporary defection to the Soviet Union and migrated with him to the United States. Reporters came over and she would tell us, "shhhh, go in the other room". But you know, just because you're hanging out with a weird group - they could have set him up, and he could have had no idea what was going on that day. Upon entering public school, June took the surname of her stepfather, Kenneth Porter, who married Marina in 1965. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in, political justice, conspiracy/truth, music, law, Bible prophecy, quote name='John Geraghty' date='May 13 2006, 02:49 PM' post='62308']. She needed a translator fast. She was an engaging young woman who had already overcome a great deal she was reared in a war-ravaged St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) littered with unmarked graves and he wanted to help her. Further still, being attached to a world-shattering crime, however obliquely, is not the life everyone wants to live, and certainly not a widow with two young mouths to feed. The doctors advised Marina against viewing Oswalds body, which was yellow and pale, his face bruised, but Marina insisted; she wanted to see the wound that killed him. They first met last April in Washington. June is quieter about her own marriage, which ended in 1992. She had long admired the first lady and asked her husband to translate any magazine articles she could find about the president. Q: On your relationship with her as well? Lee Harvey Oswald shot by Jack Ruby - YouTube 0:00 / 0:53 Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users. On April 10, 1963, Oswald used a rifle with a telescopic sight to fire a bullet into the Dallas home of Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, the conservative war hero, narrowly missing his head. It was also clear why she needed his help. Marina did her best to disappear into obscurity once the dust had settled on her husband's crimes and subsequent murder. I read this intvu again and if there are two people I'd love to talk to, it's Rachel and June. I nodded that I appreciated the distinction. 17 Copy quote. Probably the only other people in America who have to routinely see film images of their father being killed are the children of President Kennedy. She blew a long stream of smoke toward the ceiling, Kinda strange, huh?. Marina Oswald Porter is a Russian-American widow of Lee Harvey Oswald. Free shipping for many products! Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Yet I recall that his companion for the evening, a Russian woman named Anna Meller, couldnt resist asking the question we all secretly wanted answered why had Lee defected to the Soviet Union? A competent sharpshooter but an indifferent marine, he began expressing pro-Soviet and politically radical views and, on a hardship plea, secured release from the corps on September 11, 1959. I want to make sure they understand why I'm so matter-of-fact about it. "We have to get the Government to move before it's too late.". Though pressured to change her name, she declined, saying she wanted to "face reality, not dodge it," according to a church newsletter. Texas. I have to admit that when I heard that he used to play with me all the time, that was a nice feeling. Moreover, Porter currently leads a private life and is afraid to go out in public. The wall build around Oswald's family women was intense after Dallas. And I'll tell you why: It could come up at any minute. I try to hold that in the back of my head. John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. It's a little bit like opening a family album you didn't know existed before. She studied gymnastics and ballet, made good grades, was a varsity cheerleader, and was even voted most popular student by her classmates. Early that summer, Lee brought home a catalog and class schedule from Texas Christian University, and we eventually decided to drive to the T.C.U. After her testimony, she did, in fact, go to Michigan, although not everyone in the Wolverine State was happy to have her there. Stevie Ray Vaughan was turned up loud on the radio. We understand your sorrow and share it. Thats what I hope my kids will never have to go through., Do you have any pictures of you and your father?, No. By September 1963, Marina was pregnant with her second child and she moved the family back to Dallas, where they roomed in a boarding house, according to Spartacus Educational. As of May 2022, she was still living, according to All That's Interesting. Lee, who controlled the budget, would then haggle over prices, particularly with meat. Corrections? John B. Connally in an open-car motorcade in Dealey Plaza. I didnt know my family was any different until I was about 7. Marina would understand what kind of man he really was. In conversation, Rachel could be both reserved and outgoing, and though she speaks with a slow drawl, her dark eyes, high cheeks, and thick, heavy eyebrows make it clear she is of Slavic descent. What if I dont tell him at all? As for what his exact role in the assassination was - well, he'll have to be judged for that before God. officers (including, supposedly, members of Nixons plumbers team) have somehow been tied to Oswalds actions that day, but its difficult to understand how these conspiracy theories would have worked. I asked what it was like being named Oswald and growing up so close to Dallas. She stays with her second husband who is called Kenneth Jess Porter. And we got to President Kennedy and I was told to go across the hall during that one. I do remember that our phones were tapped. Apparently he had even gone to my fathers grave. Lee Harvey Oswald's childhood did not take place in any one town or city. Now, the word father does mean Lee to me, But dad is Dad. On these shopping trips, I soon realized, Marina couldnt help noticing that other mothers were buying more, dressing better and even driving their own cars. [quote name='John Geraghty' date='May 13 2006, 02:49 PM' post='62308'], Dixie, thanx for the interview. Lee Harvey Oswald was a KGB associate who was personally instructed by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to assassinate President Kennedy. But during those months, his assertion was rapidly losing credibility. On November 22, 1963, Oswald shot and killed Kennedy from a room in the very building where he worked. On the Saturday morning after Kennedy was killed, I was sitting in my small apartment in Norman when a Secret Service agent and the local chief of police arrived and took me some 20 miles down I-35 to Oklahoma City for questioning. Alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, son of Marguerite Frances Claverie Oswald. A: Something had come up where Mom had old boxes of letters out. So I sat across the hall in a time-out room. She shrugged. A: Well, there was a lot of misinformation being released related to a book, "Case Closed," by Gerald Posner. Especially Oswald. She got all caught up, because she wants so badly to have this identification with her father. That catches you off guard when you just wake up. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). I asked her what else she remembered about growing up. In June 1962, the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Dallas, Texas. Q: I'm sure there must have been a lot of unusual incidents as you were growing up. didnt want to recruit Oswald. While that five-month period might seem fleeting, it was a significant period in Oswalds life. On April 10 in Dallas he allegedly shot at but missed an ultrarightist, Edwin A. Walker, a former army general. The law said that if they felt that way, then those documents needed to be turned over to the Assassination Records Review Board and those folks would review the records and either concur, release them in blacked out state or release them entirely. In that instant, my father, Pete Gregory, linked the voice to a nurse who sat in the back of his class and had once identified herself as Oswald. Until this phone call, he hadnt realized that she was the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, a Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union only to return two and a half years later with a Russian wife and a 4-month-old daughter. The Presidents were all around the walls in the rooms. He himself was fatally shot two days later by Jack Ruby (1911-67) in the Dallas County Jail. And I'm gonna be in Dallas, and I want to sing it to you. In the 1970s, Mae Brussell, an authority on the Kennedy assassination, compiled every statement she could find made by Lee Harvey Oswald between the time of his arrest for the shooting of President John F. Kennedy and Officer Tippit and the time of his death. Im sorry for my fathers pain, but basically I just want it to be over, one way or another, especially by the time I have kids. Its set in 1978, when I was 15 and my sister was 17. She looks just like her father, with her mother's eyes. Fifty years later, I would love to ask Marina Oswald Porter why that Time magazine never moved, what happened when Lee received my letter in Dallas and why she has continued to make her home so near the place where tragedy struck. He tried to after the arrest but everybody discounted it. We were just trying to be a normal family. Q: Your childhood doesn't sound like it was easy. It was just too big of a deal. The conversation segued to the Time cover; Marina ventured that the president appeared to be a nice man and that the first lady, at least from the pictures she had seen, appeared quite glamorous. Soon after I arrived with the Oswalds, Marina and Bouhe repaired to the living room. I didn't really want to be the center of gossip in this whole building. He was also a US Marine who defected to the Soviet Union but then returned with his Soviet wife, Marina. Smallpox vaccination card, dated June 8, 1963. According to the story, Rachel was a miserable, lonely child - her dogs had been poisoned, she had never been asked out on a date, she had no friends, her family couldnt even afford to buy albums for her record player. Thirteen months later, in June 1962, he was able to return to the United States with his wife and three-month-old daughter, June Lee. When I read the script, I was really angry. As a sign of her gratitude, she gave me a memento from her days in the Communist youth league a pin of Lenins image, chin jutted out in a defiant but thoughtful pose. I remember my sister and I going to his hotel room and seeing 12 books about my father on the nightstand. Although disillusioned with the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald remained "Marxist," even . There were a lot of things leading up to that that they wanted Mom to do, and Mom in recent years has gotten more and more involved, I guess because she's getting older and trying to rectify some of the things she may have done unintentionally - like stating publicly that Lee did it. Agent Mike Howard of the Secret Service told me he had not spoken to Marina since the exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswalds body in 1981. But he recalled with clarity the frantic image of Marguerite Oswald roaming around the suite at Six Flags; he also remembered that she hid a bayonet under a pillow. The pair hit it off immediately, marrying only six weeks later. Its discomfiting to think that history could have been altered by such a small player, but over the years, Ive realized that was part of Oswalds goal. In 1977,she told reporters at a press conference about her book "Marina and Lee" that she believed her husband was guilty. He asked Marina if she would offer me Russian lessons. Oswald was born to her parents in Severodvinsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. There are a lot of assassination buffs who have analyzed all the technical data and the other available material and even they don't agree about what happened. Richard Rodrigues Author has 3.4K answers and 465.8K answer views Oct 2 Moreover, the widow was under Secret Service protection until she finished giving her testimony before the Warren Commission. And apparently there were police recordings of someone saying Jack Ruby was planning to kill Lee, and sure enough, the next day Jack Ruby makes his way through all the police and kills Lee live on national TV. We were terribly moved by this. Mr. . While married to Lee Harvey Oswald, she gave birth to her firstborn daughter called June Leeon 15th February 1962. As Van Morrisons Moondance started up on the radio, Rachel danced her shoulders a little and lit another cigarette. My father helped Lee and his young family get settled in Fort Worth a year earlier. It is difficult to imagine what life must be like for the child of a celebrity - having a recognizable last name, a childhood in the spotlight. A week and a half after his return, he went to the 15th floor of the Continental Life Building in downtown Fort Worth. Every once in a while my mother would say that I looked like him, that I ate like him, that my legs looked like his legs, but for the most part we just didnt talk about it.. Now, Mom does articles that she doesn't bother to tell me she's doing, and sometimes my name comes up. This story appears in the March issue of Texas Monthly. I see Lee. Janet Parshall Bio, Husband, Podcast, Books, Net worth, Twitter. This was before wiretapping got more sophisticated. Rachel felt differently. The thud was so loud that I feared she might be seriously injured; Lee, however, screamed at her for her clumsiness as she lay curled on the ground clutching for her baby. Dinner ended abruptly. We were studying the Presidents. Dear Paul! it read, We have moved to Dallas where we have found a nice apartment and I have found work in a very nice place, we would like you too [sic] come and see us as soon as you get a chance, before eventually signing off in Russian. During a trip to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Oswald exuded an air of optimism. A: I do. Then he sat down. My father is Kenneth Porter, the man I grew up with, the man who was there for my mother and Rachel and me. A: I don't have any real memories of those ages. Here are eight things about Oswald you might not have known: 1. John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. So this little boy she was going with, his parents were going to come get her and they were going to go to the dance. The bartenders were closing up, and Rachel said she needed to call it a night. Q: How are things between you and your mom these days? Lee Harvey Oswald, (born October 18, 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.died November 24, 1963, Dallas, Texas), accused assassin of U.S. Pres. From The New York Times Magazine April 30, 1995. But it was still depressing, seeing my father shot every time I came to work.. U.S. National Archives A young Marina Oswald during her years living in Minsk. He got really scared and wanted to take me to a hospital. He asked his secretary to type out a to whom it may concern letter stating that one Lee Harvey Oswald was qualified to work as a translator, but he also told him that he knew of no jobs in the area that required knowledge of Russian. After a short while, he concluded that he would do whatever he could for this young woman, even if that meant helping her husband, who had sulked off to the den, waiting to be called to the table. At the same time, an ex-marine defector to the USSR returned the Ft. Worth with his wife and infant daughter. One of the latest authors to wade into the conspiracy waters is Norman Mailer, whose book . At 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963, from a window on the sixth floor of the depository building, Oswald, using his mail-order rifle, allegedly fired three shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. he asked in his Texas-Russian accent, still half-asleep. "Personal Quotes/ Biography". Dating was a little tricky, she said. But there are still people who refuse to believe that I could be normal. As America's obsession with her father goes on, a daughter tries to set the record straight. It was a considerable sum (at one time, Lee gave her $2 a week from his earnings), but she refused it immediately friends, she said, did not accept money from one another. If someone has it, I would also like to read it again. poll, only a quarter of Americans believe that one man acted alone to kill Kennedy. In my book she belongs where her husband is. So on Aug. 25, 1962, we invited the Oswalds to a small dinner party at our house. "She never knew when we'd run into someone, and she didn't want us to look like poor white trash"' June says simply. She remains protective of her privacy, distancing herself and her sons, ages 6 and 3, from the overall clique of assassination cultists who have dogged the Oswald women - Marina, now 53, June, and Rachel, 31 - ever since the events of Nov. 22, 1963.