Jana Laird Phillips Oral History
Object number2013.001.0173
Date09/25/2013
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Jana Laird Phillips
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.wav file)
DimensionsDuration: 30 Minutes
Collections
DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Jana Laird Phillips. Five years old in 1963, Phillips saw the Kennedy motorcade on Main Street. Her late father, Paul C. Laird, was mayor of Irving, Texas, from 1957 to 1959.
Interview conducted by telephone on September 25, 2013 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is thirty minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryJana Laird Phillips' late father, Paul C. Laird, served one term as mayor of Irving, Texas from 1957 to 1959. At that time, the community was experiencing significant growth as its population in the 1950s rose from 2,600 to nearly 46,000 thanks to newly annexed adjacent areas and the opening of the University of Dallas and Plymouth Park Shopping Center, one of the largest shopping areas located between Dallas and Fort Worth. Growth would continue in the decade following the Kennedy assassination, with the construction of Texas Stadium in the early 1970s. By 1970, the population of Irving had reached 100,000. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
