Intersection with History

November 22, 1963 dawns with excitement in Fort Worth, Texas – President Kennedy is in town.

But when Air Force One takes off for Love Field, no one knows the young president had spent his last night, eaten his last meal, and given the last speech of his life in Fort Worth.

Intersection with History remembers a teacher’s testimony for the Warren Report, and how her oldest son’s life was changed forever by a handshake.

From the author of the novel Gabriel’s Creek and Bogeys: Armistice comes Intersection With History, a personal look back at the experience of his Fort Worth, Texas family on a historic day that shocked the world.

After charismatic U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spent the last night of his life in downtown Fort Worth’s landmark Hotel Texas, the morning broke with a dreary, drizzling overcast. The president made his last speeches and had his last meal while being entertained by an acclaimed local youth choir. The singers fascinated the president so much he stopped on his way out of the banquet hall to thrill the adolescents, shaking their hands and chatting over the roar of the crowd’s applause. Afterward, bright sunshine had broken, bathing the motorcade driving the president and his entourage through enthusiastic neighborhoods to Air Force One for his final flight to Dallas, only minutes away.

The sound of that presidential jet taking off just above the roof of the author’s classroom was still burning into the memories of the children when their Principal told them of the assassination. Minutes later, he learned from his mother that Kennedy’s killer had been her fourth-grade student; she had been a teacher years before in that very same grade school. Of course, she remembered him – she always had a soft spot for challenged children. Young Lee Harvey Oswald had grown from the schoolboy she mentored to become the alleged assassin of the President of the United States.

Soon, his older brother arrived home from his performance for the president with the Texas Boys Choir. The excitement of his brief encounter with President Kennedy was shattered by news of the man’s murder within an hour of their handshake. The dramatic contrast of those two events haunted the brother for the rest of his life.

For their mother, the days and weeks that followed included the unwanted notoriety of her picture in Life Magazine, television interviews, and a deposition for the Warren Commission. Oswald would become the subject of conspiracy theories regarding the assassination until long after her death.

The author was a second-grader when he witnessed history and felt it touch his family. A novelist and poet in his senior years, he offers a narrative that is both intimate memoir and essential reference. Intersection...