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Jeanne Saunders Oral History
Jeanne Saunders Oral History

Jeanne Saunders Oral History

Object number2001.001.0008
Date07/02/2001
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject Jeanne Saunders
Oral history interviewer Bob Porter
Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumHi-8 videotape
DimensionsDuration: 55 Minutes
Collections
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Jeanne Saunders. Saunders was the widow of the Rev. Louis Saunders, executive director of the Fort Worth Council of Churches in 1963. Rev. Saunders performed the funeral services for Lee Harvey Oswald after a last-minute cancellation on November 25, 1963. The Saunders received money and letters on behalf of Marina Oswald in the aftermath of the funeral. Interview conducted at Ms. Saunders' home on July 2, 2001 by Bob Porter and Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-five minutes long.
Curatorial Commentary

Jeanne Dougherty Saunders passed away at the age of 76 on October 16, 2001, a little over three months after this interview was recorded.

The Rev. Louis A. Saunders passed away in 1998 at the age of 88. A native of North Carolina, Saunders was executive director of the Fort Worth Council of Churches at the time of the Kennedy assassination. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The Museum's Louis A. Saunders Family Collection (2001.034), donated at the time of this oral history, includes approximately eighty items from the personal collection of Rev. Louis and Jeanne Saunders. The donation included books, newspapers and magazines, as well as programs, correspondence and sermon transcriptions, as well as a typed two-page firsthand account of the Oswald funeral by the late Rev. Saunders. One book from the collection, Aftermath of an Execution by Marguerite Oswald, may be found in the online collections database here: Book titled "Aftermath of an Execution" by Marguerite Oswald – Search saunders (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Stephen Fagin, Curator