From the sudden silence at a local grocery store to the sound of taps on a CB radio, the events in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, created a lasting impact on Henry County citizens.Virtually everybody remembers where they were and what they were doing when hearing news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Some readers freely shared their memories of the tragic moment on The Courier-Times Facebook page.

It’s an easy day for Jennifer Thornburg Wolksi to remember, because Nov. 22 is the day her parents got married in 1955.

“I was with my mom and my younger brother in Becker Brothers grocery store,” she said. “The manager came across the store intercom and announced that the President had been shot. You could have heard a pin drop. It was really eerie. What an impact on a four-year-old.”

Brenda Walcott Asberry said she could relate to that sentiment.

“I was almost five years old,” she wrote. “I clearly remember standing in our dining room and everyone was crying. I started crying too, even though I really didn’t understand what had happened.”

Meanwhile, Joan Lacy Tungate was at home watching TV with her brother and sister-in-law.

“We had a CB radio on in the kitchen and as Walter Cronkite announced his death, someone came over the CB radio and played taps,” Tungate remembered. “We all got goose bumps and started crying.”

Some local people were actually in Dallas when the tragedy happened.

The Courier-Times reported former New Castle resident Betty Poe Bradberry had watched President Kennedy and his wife pass by just seconds before the chief executive was shot.

Bradberry and her husband, Jack, had been married in Dallas just two months prior to the assassination.

The assassination put a damper on regular New Castle activities.

A pep parade celebrating the opening of the Trojan basketball season season and a dance following the New Castle-Knightstown game were called off. The game itself was played as scheduled with school authorities “expressing the view that the late President, an advocate of sports and physical fitness, would have wanted contracted athletic events held.”

All New Castle-Henry Township schools were closed the following Monday, as were all city offices at the direction of Mayor Walter V. Falck. Only essential services of the city were performed, with even trash and garbage collections canceled.

The moment left a future New Castle speech and debate teacher speechless.

“I was in study hall at the old building of Muncie Central downtown and the whole school was dismissed for the rest of the day after the announcement,” said James Robbins, who, with his late wife Joy, led many successful New Castle speech and debate contestants. “I have only felt that empty and forlorn a few times in my life.”

Another future teacher, Judy Hayworth Stevens, remembers how quickly a large classroom of elementary students became library-like.

“I was in Miss Sheffield’s 6th-grade classroom at the old Riley School,” Stevens recalled. “A mother came to pick up her son and told Miss Sheffield, but we could hear the sad news she was delivering. I remember all the 40-plus kids were very quiet.”

Some teachers couldn’t control the emotions of the moment, as Steve Guffey recalled from his Cadiz Elementary School classroom.

“I was there sitting in my first grade class when the principal came over the public address system and said that the president had been shot,” Guffey said. “The room fell very quiet and my teacher put her head in her hands and started sobbing uncontrollably. When she gained her composure, we all lined up to catch the bus for home early.

“It was not until many years later that what happened truly set in and I realized how much America had changed on that day – Nov. 22, 1963.”

City Editor William Crandall wrote about meeting Kennedy. It was April 12, 1959, and Sen. Kennedy addressed a student assembly at Purdue University in West Lafayette that day. Crandall was a young reporter for the Lafayette Courier and Journal assigned to cover the senator’s speech.

“Much to my astonishment, the senator started up the steps two at a time while the official university welcoming party still was alighting from the vehicle.

“Once at the top, the senator greeted each of us with a warm smile, a handshake and a word or two. I can only say that I was greatly impressed by his warm friendliness and his mental and physical vigor.

“As Sen. Kennedy entered the administration building, I couldn’t help notice with some humor that the official welcoming party was still climbing up the steps in a desperate attempt to catch up.”

“That day the senator told the students ‘our country needs strong citizens and leadership as well as weapons” and he was greeted by a standing ovation.”

“In closing his talk that spring day, Sen. Kennedy said “as we face the dark future, we must bring candles to illuminate our country’s way.”

Darrel Radford is a Courier-Times staff writer and a board member of the Henry County Historical Society.