More than six decades after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a woman captured in footage from that historic day has finally been identified.
For 62 years, she was known only as the woman wearing a distinctive headscarf and holding a young boy as Kennedy’s motorcade passed through Dallas.
She has now been identified as Joan Jackson, who is 94. The child in her arms was the three-year-old son of a friend.
The breakthrough came when Jackson’s daughter contacted Stephen Fagin, head of curatorial at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
The Dallas museum commemorates Kennedy’s life and assassination on November 22, 1963, while also examining Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused gunman, and the many conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting.
“Her daughter happened to call me at the museum and say, ‘My mom saw the parade. She’s in a film. She’s wearing a headscarf,’” Fagin told CBS Texas.
Jackson, who still has the headscarf, had no idea that cameras had recorded her during the presidential procession.
“I didn’t even know anyone was filming it. It’s like I’m looking right at the camera,” Jackson said.
A woman captured in footage from the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated has been identified after 62 years
Joan Jackson, now 94, has been identified as the woman pictured with her friend’s three-year-old son
Jackson now lives in a senior facility in Dallas and can still recall the events of that day in remarkable detail. On November 22, 1963, residents knew the route the president would take through the city.
“It just went on and on for a while. It was just a different time back then.”
At first, the presidential limousine was enclosed. But before long, spectators were given an unobstructed view of Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
“They announced that the sun was coming out and that they were going to take the bubble off of the car,” Jackson recalled.
“It was just such a beautiful setting for me to see them go by. I know we kept saying to each other, ‘I can’t believe this,’” she added.
For Fagin, confirming Jackson’s identity adds another personal detail to the historical record of Kennedy’s assassination.
“They’re like puzzle pieces that fit into this broader tapestry of living memory, and they help to connect us to the moment and the memory of that event and make this story relevant to younger people born decades after the 1960s,” he said.
Even at 94, Jackson remains mentally sharp and remembers the precise streets she walked on the day Kennedy was killed.
Jackson still owns the headscarf she wore that day, but until recently she had no idea she had appeared on camera
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President John F. Kennedy smiles at the crowd that had gathered along the presidential motorcade route in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963
‘The older ones, we won’t be around much longer, and I think the young ones need to know what happened,’ she said.
Fagin added: ‘It provides this tangible link to the moment, and the memory of the assassination, and to preserve that makes this event real and relevant today.’
The headscarf is set to go on display at the museum, while Jackson’s musings will be preserved on its YouTube page.
Kennedy’s death put a brutal end to the tenure of the youngest person ever elected to the world’s most powerful office, a tragedy that retraumatized a nation that hadn’t dealt with a presidential assassination since William McKinley was killed in 1901.
The effects of the Kennedy assassination reverberated long after the day it happened. From then on, people were much more willing to entertain conspiracy theories thanks to widespread skepticism over the ‘single bullet theory’ and inconsistences with Kennedy’s autopsy.
There’s also the fact that just 29 percent of Americans believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, according to a 2023 Gallup poll. Sixty-five percent believe there was a conspiracy involved.
What made Kennedy’s murder different from McKinley’s, James A. Garfield’s and Abraham Lincoln’s, was that there were high-definition photos capturing the moments before, during and after the two bullets struck.
Pictures taken by reporters and bystanders show a startling juxtaposition that day. Jubilant crowds welcomed the 35th president one second, and the next, panicked throngs dove to the ground as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy cradled the mangled head of her husband.
Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested by Dallas police officers roughly 45 minutes after shooting Kennedy. He also murdered Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, who recognized him
The funeral procession for Kennedy in front of the Capitol Building on November 25, 1963, three days after he was killed
Kennedy was in Texas with his wife and Vice President Lyndon B Johnson the day of his assassination and the day prior to shore up support among Democrats in the state ahead of the 1964 election.
On November 21, he visited San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth. The next morning, he took a short flight to Dallas, landing in Love Field.
Kennedy greeted his supporters and departed from the airport in his open-top limousine at 11.55am.
Seated to his left was the first lady, his wife of 10 years. In front of him, in the second row sat Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. And in the very front of the vehicle were two Secret Service agents.
The dark blue, modified 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible was headed for the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was slated to give a speech focused on how America was in the strongest position it had ever been on the world stage.
At around 12.30pm, the motorcade turned onto Elm Street in Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot twice in quick succession. One of the bullets also struck Governor Connally.
Right before he was shot, Nellie Connally referenced the people cheering for Kennedy and said to him: ‘Well, Mr. President, you can’t say there aren’t some people in Dallas who love you.’
According to the Warren Commission, three shots were fired in total. The first bullet missed, while the second struck Kennedy near the base of the back of his neck and exited out of the front of his neck.
The third bullet entered the back of his head on the right and exited out the same side, causing the massive wound that ultimately killed him.