Image of Senator Ralph Yarborough outside Parkland Hospital

It is not clear which Dallas Morning News photographer took this image. Tom Dillard, Clint Grant, Joe Laird and Bill Winfrey are the photographers who were present when the photograph was taken. In his account, Clint Grant specifically listed seeing Senator Yarbrough and the hearse at Parkland. However, there is no definitive information to single out Grant as the photographer of this image. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager

The late Ralph Yarborough (1903-96) served as a U.S. senator from Texas from 1957 to 1971. As leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, he was politically at odds with both Vice President Johnson and Governor Connally by 1963. However, he was a key part of President Kennedy's Texas trip as the president tried to mend political fences among Texas Democrats and shore up support for his re-election campaign in 1964. Yarborough is seen in solemn, sometimes tearful conversation with journalists and dignitaries in numerous photographs taken outside of the emergency entrance to Parkland Memorial Hospital following the assassination. In his Warren Commission affidavit from July 10, 1964, Yarborough stated: "On arrival at the hospital, I told newsmen that three rifle shots had been fired. There was then no doubt in my mind that the shots were rifle shots, and I had neither then or now any doubts that any other shots were fired. In my opinion only three shots were fired." -- Stephen Fagin, Curator