Tina Towner Pender Oral History
Object number2008.001.0007
Date02/01/2008
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Tina Towner Pender
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
Oral history interviewer
Gary Mack
(1946 - 2015)
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)
Dimensions52 Minutes
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Tina Towner Pender. Standing on the south side of Elm Street at the Houston corner in Dealey Plaza, the Towner family witnessed the assassination. James Towner took several still photographs while 13-year-old Tina filmed with her father's home movie camera as the Kennedy limousine turned onto Elm Street and the assassination aftermath.
Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on February 1, 2008 by Associate Curator Stephen Fagin and Curator Gary Mack. The interview is fifty-two minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryIn addition to this one-on-one 2008 recording, Tina Towner Pender recorded a videotaped interview with The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza alongside both of her parents on March 30, 1996. She and her late father also participated in a videotaped group interview with other Dealey Plaza eyewitnesses on November 22, 1996. On her own, Ms. Pender participated in videotaped programs at the Museum in 2000 and 2008.
Ms. Pender's home movie of the Kennedy motorcade, along with excerpts from her oral history and program appearances, were featured in the Museum exhibition Filming Kennedy: Home Movies from Dallas (November 2007 - October 2008). - Stephen Fagin, Associate Curator
Tina Towner's home movie of the limousine turning onto Elm Street disproves the recollection of a Book Depository employee who thought the car turned too wide and almost hit the north curb. Jim Towner's later pictures showed bystanders following a police officer running to the triple underpass in search of a gunman and also some of the shock and grief people expressed as they realized what had just happened. Their pictures were unknown to investigators and the public until they appeared in the November 24, 1967 issue of LIFE magazine in a story titled, Last Seconds of the Motorcade. - Gary Mack, Curator
