/internal/media/dispatcher/75697/fullDr. Betty Duke-Ruhd Oral History03/24/2017Duration: 55 MinutesBorn digital (.m2ts file)Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2017.001.00340Videotaped oral history interview with Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd. A junior at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, Duke-Ruhd and her family observed the presidential motorcade on Lemmon Avenue, where she had a brief verbal exchange with President Kennedy.
Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on March 24, 2017 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-five minutes long.Oral Histories720830E-100E-1048043Oral history0E-10Videotaped oral history interview with Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd. A junior at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, Duke-Ruhd and her family observed the presidential motorcade on Lemmon Avenue, where she had a brief verbal exchange with President Kennedy.
Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on March 24, 2017 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-five minutes long.Oral historiesLemmon AvenueMotorcadeChildhoodStudentKennedy, John F.Kennedy, JacquelineHuber, Oscar L.Thomas Jefferson High SchoolHoly Trinity Roman Catholic ChurchDallasChildhood Recollections (OHC)Motorcade Spectators (OHC)Dallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)I first met Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd, as well as her childhood friend Jan Sittel, when I spoke at a luncheon of the Plano Retired Teachers Association in Plano, Texas in February 2014. Upon learning that Duke-Ruhd and Sittel had both seen President and Mrs. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, I invited them to record oral histories with the Museum. I was honored to recorded one-on-one interviews back to back on March 24, 2017. Jan Sittel's interview, recorded immediately prior to this interview with Betty Duke-Ruhd, may be accessed here: Jan Sittel Oral History – Search sittel (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
Since that time, both Jan Sittel and Betty Duke-Ruhd have become longtime friends of the Museum. Together, they have participated in three public and educational Living History programs at the Museum, recorded in 2018, 2019 and 2025. Our 2019 conversation may be viewed in full on the Museum's YouTube channel: Living History with Jan Sittel and Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd. - Stephen Fagin, Curator Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd explains that she yelled out to President Kennedy on Lemmon Avenue because he was distracted by a large group of students from Holy Trinity Catholic School lined up across Lemmon Avenue from her family's location. Dwaine Sides, then a third grader at Holy Trinity, was part of that group. He and his older sister, Mel Anderson, recorded an oral history with the Museum in 2020 which may be viewed here: Dwaine Sides and Mel Anderson Oral History – Search dwaine (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Stephen Fagin, Curator