Will O'Hara Oral History

Object number2011.001.0052

Date06/20/2011

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Will O'Hara

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)

DimensionsDuration: 42 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Will O'Hara. A student at W.W. Samuell High School in 1963, O'Hara was with friends at Dallas Love Field, on Stemmons Freeway immediately after the assassination and later at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He was present in a nurses' classroom for the official announcement of President Kennedy's death. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on June 20, 2011 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is forty-two minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Will O'Hara was traveling with a group of classmates on November 22, 1963, and we were fortunate to also record oral histories with three of his friends: Charles Hodges, David Wallace and Ronald Cantrell. These interviews helped us solve a longtime photographic mystery as we were able to finally identify a group of previously unknown young men mingling with journalists outside the emergency entrance at Parkland Memorial Hospital and later inside a nurses' classroom for the official announcement of President Kennedy's death. Will O'Hara, wearing glasses and a light-colored jacket, can be seen standing against the far wall of that classroom with his hand on his hip in the background of this Dallas Times Herald photograph: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/3550/.

We shared the story of the "Boys from W.W. Samuell" in images and oral histories as part of a public program commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the assassination on November 22, 2015: Moments & Memories: Reflecting on November 22, 1963 - YouTube. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator