JFK, As I Remember Him
Written and Photographed by
Tony Zappone

(TONY ZAPPONE WAS ONLY 16 WHEN JOHN F. KENNEDY ARRIVED IN TAMPA FOR AN AFTERNOON FOUR DAYS PRIOR TO BEING ASSASSINATED.  ZAPPONE, ALREADY A BUDDING NEWSHOUND AND PHOTOGRAPHER, MANAGED TO break out of the pack of national press photographers and capture images that are as PERSONAL as his experience.  he has written a first-person account exclusively for big 13)

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No visit by any president since has stirred as much excitement and emotion as that of John Fitzgerald Kennedy one Monday in November, 1963.  Four days later, he was no longer our president…the victim of an assassin’s bullet.

For several weeks, the people of Tampa eagerly awaited the visit of the young 35^th president of the United States.  Welcome banners were made, Secret Service agents scouted his motorcade routes and the stops he would make while special phone lines were installed for White House communication.

School officials made plans to allow children to leave classes for a glimpse of the leader of the free world along his motorcade and at several of his public stops.  It came down from the Superintendent of Schools that any students who brought a note in from their parents could be dismissed from school at noon to go downtown to view the motorcade or see the president at Al Lopez Field.

I was in the 11^th grade at Jefferson High School and one of the many young people who used to race home each Wednesday to catch his regular press conference broadcast live from the old State Department Auditorium.  It was a weekly ritual for the nation and for me.  Not many my age knew much about the issues he would address during each session,  but we were mesmerized by his charisma, style, sense of humor, friendliness and statesmanship.

His Tampa visit wasn’t publicly announced too much in advance for security reasons but once I found out about it I raced to the coordinators at the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.  I already knew the big wigs there but they said I had to be representing some legitimate organization to get press credentials.  So Mrs. Alexine Allen, my journalism teacher, signed a letter stating I would be representing the school paper and yearbook.  Back in 1963 that was enough.  I got my “all areas” press badge which hung around my neck.  It also gave me permission to leave school for the entire day…on “official business.”

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