Kennedy Connection

At approximately 12:38 p.m. on November 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was taken into Trauma Room 1 at Parkland Memorial Hospital. By 2 p.m., his young widow was escorting his remains to Air Force One. The events in that brief time and in the following days forever engraved Parkland Memorial Hospital in a pivotal moment of United States history.

The following documents and photos commemorate the legacy of the events surrounding November 22, 1963.

Documents

Chapter five of “1894 into the Future,” a special edition of Hospital Highlights, recounts in detail the moments before and after President John F. Kennedy arrived at Parkland.

Parkland’s December 9, 1963, issue of Hospital Highlights features a letter to Parkland by Governor John Connally, a letter from then-hospital administrator C. Jack Price, historical photos and more.

Stories from those who were there – Daniel Foster, MD served as professor and chairman of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Yvonne Clark served as an executive secretary in Parkland’s Pathology laboratories.

Photos

Trauma Room 1 | This is the room where Parkland physicians worked to save the life of the president.

Seal of the President of the United States replica | - The White House supplied this cast of the Presidential Seal in 1989. Parkland enlisted the help of the medical illustrators at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to paint the cast.

President John F. Kennedy bust | - This bust was sculpted by Felix De Weldon and donated to Parkland in 2012.

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