Image of schoolgirl Kathey Atkinson reacting to news of the president's death

Kathey Atkinson saw President and Mrs. Kennedy at Dallas Love Field earlier that morning. At the moment that this photograph was taken outside of Parkland Memorial Hospital, she and her mother were reacting to news from a Catholic priest that the president had died. This photograph, published on the front page of the Dallas Times Herald the following day, was distributed internationally.  Dallas Times Herald women's news editor Vivian Castleberry called it "a symbol of the world's grief." - Stephen Fagin, Curator

A native of Ireland, Eamon Kennedy was a staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. On the weekend of the Kennedy assassination, he captured images at Dallas Love Field, Parkland Memorial Hospital, the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff and Dallas police headquarters. He later covered the 1964 Jack Ruby trial and the Warren Commission's visit to Dallas.

As a longtime friend of the Museum, he recorded several oral history interviews and programs. His interview from May 2014 can be viewed on the Museum’s online collection database here: Eamon Kennedy Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Other objects related to Mr. Kennedy, including several of his images, may be found here: Thesaurus – Vocabularies – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger

This object is featured in the Museum's special exhibit, "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963," which opened on April 29, 2026.