/internal/media/dispatcher/75703/fullJan Sittel and Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd Living History Program03/08/2019Duration: 58 MinutesBorn digital (.mov file)Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza2019.001.00270Videotaped Living History educational program with Jan Sittel and Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd. Sittel and Duke-Ruhd, both juniors at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas in 1963, saw President and Mrs. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Sittel shook hands with the Kennedys at Dallas Love Field, while Duke-Ruhd observed the motorcade on Lemmon Avenue.
Program conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza for Alex Sanger Elementary School in Dallas on March 8, 2019. The program, moderated by Stephen Fagin, is fifty-six minutes long.Oral Histories720910E-100E-1063123Oral history0E-10Videotaped Living History educational program with Jan Sittel and Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd. Sittel and Duke-Ruhd, both juniors at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas in 1963, saw President and Mrs. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Sittel shook hands with the Kennedys at Dallas Love Field, while Duke-Ruhd observed the presidential motorcade on Lemmon Avenue.
Program conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza for Alex Sanger Elementary School in Dallas on March 8, 2019. The program, moderated by Stephen Fagin, is fifty-six minutes long.Oral historiesMotorcadeLemmon AvenueChildhoodSignConfederate flagStudentCrowdsFuneralKennedy, John F.Huber, Oscar L.Kennedy, JacquelineLove FieldHoly Trinity Roman Catholic ChurchThomas Jefferson High SchoolDallasDallas and 1960s History and Culture (OHC)Love Field Airport (OHC)Childhood Recollections (OHC)Motorcade Spectators (OHC)Kennedy Funeral (OHC)I first met Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd and 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.
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. This 2019 conversation may also be viewed on the Museum's YouTube channel: Living History with Jan Sittel and Dr. Betty Duke-Ruhd. - Stephen Fagin, Curator The Museum's Jan Sittel Collection (2018.021) includes the cardboard sign that she carried at Dallas Love Field on November 22, 1963, which was shared during this educational program. The sign may be found here: Handmade cardboard "All the Way with Jack!" sign welcoming JFK to Love Field – Search sittel (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The Jan Sittel Collection also includes the racoon collar coat that she was wearing that day, which was also shared during this program.
Jan Sittel can be seen in several photographs taken at Dallas Love Field, most prominently in this Tom Dillard/Dallas Morning News image: Image of the crowd holding signs and waving flags at Dallas Love Field – Search love field (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Looking into the camera, Sittel is center left in this image, holding a sign that reads: "All the way with Jack! Grass Roots Dem."
Sittel's one-on-one oral history, recorded in 2017, may be viewed here: Jan Sittel Oral History – Search sittel (Objects) – Search – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - 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