Dallas remembers JFK under heavy skies

Dallas (AFP) - In contrast to the sunny skies that warmed Dallas the day President John F. Kennedy was shot some 50 years ago, a chilling drizzle fell on the crowds that gathered to remember him Friday.

The heavy skies reflected the somber mood of thousands of people who turned out for the first official memorial in the Texas metropolis that has long sought to shed its reputation as the "City of Hate."

The ringing of church bells filled Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm (1830 GMT) as a moment of silence marked the time that the deadly shots burst forth from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

Bishop Kevin Farrell praised God for helping people recover "from the horrible tragedy enacted in this place, from the cruel suffering that was born on this hill, from the shock and horror that gripped our nation."

In the ceremony's opening invocation, the Catholic leader also thanked the Lord for helping the suffering citizens of Dallas who "were implicated by the gun shot by one man that killed a president in whom many of us had set our hopes and dreams for a better America."

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings paid tribute to Kennedy as "an idealist without illusions who helped build a more just and equal world."

"A new era dawned and another waned a half a century ago when hope and hatred collided right here in Dallas," Rawlings told the solemn crowd.

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy's presidency, his life and, yes, his death, seemed to mythologically usher in the next 50 years. What ensued was five decades filled with other tragedies, turmoil, and great triumphs."

Carol Wilson, 68, was among the throngs of supporters who filled the streets of Dallas to welcome the dashing young president and his glamorous wife in her pink suit.

"We loved them," Wilson said as she described how she felt as Kennedy drove by in an open-top limousine on November 22, 1963.

Her joy was short lived. Moments later, Lee Harvey Oswald -- a troubled Marine Corps veteran turned Soviet defector -- shot the nation's 35th president.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard. It was shocking," she told AFP at the memorial in Dallas, a southern city that distrusted the northern president's Catholic faith and liberal politics.

"I hope people realize we're not responsible. I wish I could go back in time and change it," she said.

Ellen Byrd, 68, was also in the crowd that fateful day but didn't know the president had been shot until she got back to her college dorm.

"I felt so sad," remembered Byrd, now a university trustee, lamenting the trauma that befell Jackie Kennedy as her husband was shot beside her. "I thought she was so beautiful when I saw her."

The young leader's brutal death, a dark turning point even in an era gripped by the Cold War nuclear stand-off and bloodshed in the jungles of Vietnam, shocked the world.

Cut down in his first term at the age of 46, Kennedy's unfulfilled promise has become a symbol of the lost nobility of politics and his soaring rhetoric and call to service continues to inspire.

Canadian businessman Ross Doughty, 63, flew down from Toronto to attend the memorial.

He applied for a ticket eight months ago and considers himself lucky to have received one of the 5,000 distributed by lottery.

"I wanted to come for historical reasons. I wanted to pay tribute to him," he told AFP. "It impacted everyone, not just the US."

The assassination shaped the youth of Dallas resident Michael Moore, who was just five years old at the time. Moore comes to Dealey Plaza every year to mark the day and said that, like many Americans, he's been unable to accept the official conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

But that doesn't mean he's a fan of the conspiracy theorists who make regular pilgrimages to Dallas.

"It's more dignified this year," said Moore, who arrived at 6:45 am, five hours before the ceremony began. "They've done a good job keeping the kooks out."

Roy Whidley, 67, said he hoped the memorial will allow Dallas -- and the nation -- to finally fully heal.

"I feel both joyful and sad," he said as a bitter wind blew through the plaza.

"He was slain right here on this street. That is sad," he told AFP.

"But I'm glad we can celebrate his great legacy. The city took a lot of heat for his death. I hope this brings some closure and the rest of world can forgive us."