Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit
WASHINGTON — More than four decades have passed since Marie Tippit lost her husband to John F. Kennedy’s assassin on that fateful November day in Dallas, and on Monday, she got to see J.D. Tippit’s name on a national police memorial, alongside those of thousands of other fallen officers.
The rain was falling steadily as the 79-year-old widow made her first visit to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. She rubbed her thumb gently across the marble, pursing her lips. A tear spilled down her cheek as her son patted her back.
For Mrs. Tippit, J.D. was more than a footnote to history, or a key piece of evidence to the Warren Commission’s investigation.
“He was a good police officer and he was a good husband and father,” she said.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Tippit will sit on the dais at a candlelight vigil expected to draw 20,000 to the memorial, a few blocks from the Capitol.
“This means a lot to us,” said Craig Floyd, chairman and CEO of the fund that built the memorial in 1991, personally playing tour guide.
He showed Mrs. Tippit the marble panel with her husband’s name. Just to the right, the name “John Kennedy” — a New York City police officer killed in 1922, placed there to remind visitors of Officer Tippit’s place in history.
“He represents — even though he was killed by the man who killed a president, because of that he just kind of represents a lot of the other officers that were killed in the line of duty, just out there doing their jobs every day,” Mrs. Tippit said.
She has long since remarried but often uses the name of her first husband. Life goes on, she said. But just as the world hasn’t forgotten the Kennedy assassination, she thinks often of her first husband. He was 39. That day, Nov. 22, 1963, he stopped home for lunch — not something he often did. She whipped up some tuna and fried potatoes and he rushed back to work.
Officer Tippit spotted Lee Harvey Oswald wearing a zipped-up jacket. It was 68 degrees, and the jacket looked out of place. He stopped his patrol car and got out. Oswald pulled a handgun and shot at point-blank range. It was 1:15 p.m., just 45 after the president had been shot.
Eyewitnesses called police. Oswald was cornered at the Texas Theater.
Mrs. Tippit comes from a law enforcement family. Her father was a police captain in Greenville at the time, and two brothers were officers there. The son who accompanied her to Washington this week, Curtis Tippit, a home contractor who lives east of Dallas, has a son who is considering a police career.
“His personality is one of a protector, a take the bull-by-the-horns kind of person. It may have something to do with his grandfather, too,” said Mr. Tippit, who was just shy of his 5th birthday when his father died.
“As a lot of the other widows will tell you, you have to do it one day at a time. It’s just not an easy thing,” his mom said. “You have to take it one day at a time, because you’ve got kids to raise. You’ve got to keep his memory alive for them.”
Dallas police officers pitched in to send the Tippits to Washington.
They arrived Saturday night and got a VIP tour of the White House on Sunday. They were on hand to see Marine One deliver the Bushes after their daughter’s wedding in Crawford. Monday was set aside for the memorial visit. On Tuesday, they’ll visit the Capitol.
“He was doing his job,” said Dallas police Sr. Cpl. Rick Janich, who escorted the Tippits.
Courtesy: By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
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