It loomed as a memorable day for Verne Lundquist when he went to work at an Austin, Tex. TV station on Nov. 22, 1963. He was looking forward to seeing President John F. Kennedy speak later that day in town.
Fifty years later, Lundquist remembers vividly how his day and the nation’s suddenly changed.
“I was on an earlier shift, working the board,” Lundquist said. “I had been invited by a good friend of mine to hear Kennedy speak. Her dad was the general manager of the station, and he gave me permission to not do the show that night so I could take her to hear the president’s speech.
“I was on the phone with her 12:25 p.m. (going over the details), when the news anchor broke into the control room and said, ‘Give me the microphone. The President has been shot.’ That’s how I heard about it.”
Then Lundquist recalled things got surreal.
“I swear to God, within an hour, we had secret service people blanketing the building. Nobody knew at the time if there was some kind of coup going on. Because the president was destined to come to Austin, and because (Lyndon Johnson) owned the only station in town, they were all over the building just in case.”
Only 23 at the time, Lundquist suddenly found himself assisting in CBS’ coverage. He was assigned to drive around a network correspondent to Johnson’s home town of Johnson City.
“We spent 8 or 9 hours there collecting information on the new president,” Lundquist said. “Television was in its infancy back then. The idea of going live (from a remote location) was not that easy. It required land lines. We shot all the film, and then they flew it back on an overnight flight to New York to so they could use it over the weekend.”
Looking back, Lundquist said, “I was a witness to history, absolutely.”
There are a couple of postscripts, he said.
“You remember Pete Rozelle allowed the NFL to play games on that Sunday (following the assassination,” Lundquist said. “Well, on the following Friday night, I was on the sidelines with my 16 mm. camera covering state high school football playoff game. The juxtaposition of priorities was really extraordinary.”
Once Johnson settled in as president, Lundquist received an unexpected education from some of the top journalists in the business.
“When Johnson would come home for the summer, the White House press corps would stay in Austin,” Lundquist said. “There was a hangout that they all went to in town. I was 24-years-old and I got to mingle and meet these guys. Here I was having a beer with George Herman. I was in their world. To sit and listen at the feet of those fellas is something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”