Helen Bryson Oral History

Since 2010, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza has actively engaged in community outreach to grow the institution's ongoing Oral History Project. Unlike the one-on-one interviews recorded onsite at the Museum or via Zoom or telephone, community outreach recordings are typically brief, on-the-spot reflections of President Kennedy and the weekend of the assassination that, on average, run between five to fifteen minutes. During a typical outreach visit to a retirement home, church or community center, I give a half-hour presentation about the assassination and the Museum's project and encourage those in attendance to add their voices to this tapestry of living memory. Following the program, somewhat like a doctor's office, I call on volunteers to sit down with me one-on-one, one after another to briefly share their memories. These impromptu recordings have, over the years, uncovered a wealth of untold stories and hidden gems. Among the dozens of everyday memories of hearing about the Kennedy assassination at work, in a restaurant or at school, are a number of Kennedy motorcade spectators, Parkland Hospital personnel, attendees of the Fort Worth breakfast or Dallas Trade Mart luncheon, acquaintances of Jack Ruby, Peace Corps volunteers, civil rights activists and even one local FBI agent, long since retired from the Bureau. It has been an honor to record these and other unique stories related to the life, death and legacy of President Kennedy and the broader history and culture of the 1960s. If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and are interested in scheduling an oral history outreach visit for your retirement community or organization, please contact oralhistory@jfk.org. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

During this outreach visit to First Christian Church in Plano, I recorded interviews with eight individuals. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

In addition to Helen Bryson, the Museum has recorded oral histories with three other people who observed the Kennedy motorcade from the Mercantile Bank building on Main Street in downtown Dallas, including Madeline Rude, Al Dougal, and Glen Gatlin. The late Mr. Gatlin recorded an interview in 2003 (Glen Gatlin Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza) and then returned to the Museum for eight educational programs recorded between 2008 and 2017. He passed away in 2021. - Stephen Fagin, Curator