Malcolm MacGregor "Mac" Kilduff Jr. (September 26, 1927 – March 3, 2003) was an American journalist, best known for making the public announcement of the
death of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Mac Kilduff was Kennedy's assistant
White House Press Secretary, and the ranking press secretary on Kennedy's November 1963 trip to
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, Texas where Kennedy was assassinated.
Biography
Kilduff was born in
Staten Island, New York City. He grew up in
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...
, and went to
Washington-Lee High School
Washington-Liberty High School, formerly known as Washington-Lee High School, is a public high school in the Arlington Public Schools district in Arlington, Virginia, covering grades 9–12. Its attendance area serves the central third of A ...
. He served in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
from 1945 to 1947. He went to
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. Kilduff also went to the Arlington Institute of Law.
November 22, 1963
President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
made a trip to
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
in November 1963, accompanied by his wife
Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice-President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
, Johnson's wife
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (''née'' Taylor; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She previously served as Second Lady from 1961 to 1963 whe ...
, and others. Kilduff was acting press secretary for the trip because the main White House press secretary,
Pierre Salinger
Pierre Emil George Salinger (June 14, 1925 – October 16, 2004) was an American journalist, author and politician. He served as the ninth press secretary for United States Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served ...
, was traveling to Japan with six members of the Cabinet, including Secretary of State
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving Secretary of State after Cordell Hull from the F ...
, for a joint meeting with the
Japanese Cabinet.
President Kennedy was shot at about 12:30 p.m. CST on November 22, 1963 while riding in a motorcade through
Dealey Plaza. He was rushed to Dallas's
Parkland Memorial Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital is a public hospital in Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the main hospital of the Parkland Health & Hospital System and serves as Dallas County's public hospital. It is located within the Southwestern Medical Di ...
. The doctors at Parkland pronounced the president dead at about 1 pm CST.
Announcing death of JFK
It fell to Kilduff to bring the news from Kennedy's trauma room to Vice President Johnson waiting in another room in the hospital. Kilduff simply walked up to Johnson and addressed him as "Mr. President."
Lady Bird Johnson let out a short scream as the news hit.
Kilduff asked for Johnson's approval to announce Kennedy's death to the public. Johnson ordered that the announcement of the president's death be made only after he left the hospital. Johnson told him:
I think I had better get out of here ... before you announce it. We don't know whether this is a worldwide conspiracy, whether they are after me as well as they were after President Kennedy, or whether they are after Speaker (John W.) McCormack, or Senator (Carl) Hayden. We just don't know.
Johnson left the hospital and was driven back to
Air Force One at
Dallas Love Field.
He later recounted to
Merle Miller
Merle Dale Miller (May 17, 1919 – June 10, 1986) was an American writer, novelist, and author who is perhaps best remembered for his best-selling biography of Harry S. Truman, and as a pioneer in the gay rights movement.
Miller came out ...
: "I asked that the announcement be made after we had left the room...so that if it were an international conspiracy and they were out to destroy our form of government and the leaders in that government, that we would minimize the opportunity for doing so."
After Kilduff received confirmation that Johnson was back at Air Force One, Kilduff announced President Kennedy's death to the press assembled in a nurse's classroom at Parkland Hospital, at 1:33 p.m. CST (19:33
UTC),
saying:
Kilduff then followed Johnson back to Air Force One. While Johnson took the
oath of office of the president of the United States
The oath of office of the president of the United States is the oath or affirmation that the president of the United States takes upon assuming office. The wording of the oath is specified in Article II, Section One, Clause 8, of the United St ...
, Kilduff made the only audio recording of the event, by holding up a
Dictabelt
The Dictabelt, in early years and much less commonly also called a Memobelt, is an analog audio recording medium commercially introduced by the American Dictaphone company in 1947. Having been intended for recording dictation and other speech fo ...
Dictaphone
Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell
that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Although the name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, it has ...
which had been on the president's desk, the only audio recording device Kilduff could locate aboard the plane.
Later career
Kilduff continued to serve as Assistant Press Secretary for the Johnson administration until 1965, when he resigned to start a
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...
agency.
He later worked as an editor for ''The Beattyville Enterprise'' newspaper in
Beattyville, Kentucky. After his divorce from his first wife, Bonnie, Kilduff had met and married a Beattyville native, Rosemary Porter Kilduff, who had worked in Washington, D.C. as an aide to U.S. Sen.
Vance Hartke. Upon her retirement from government service, the Kilduffs moved back to her childhood home in Beattyville, on a hill overlooking the town's east side and the nursing home where he eventually died. While editor of The Beattyville Enterprise, Kilduff won a number of Kentucky Press Association awards. Rosemary was also a columnist for the paper and was also an award-winning journalist. One of her columns, dealing with methods of forecasting the weather in mountain folklore, became the impetus for the town's annual fall festival, the Woolly Worm Festival, held the third weekend in October.
In Beattyville, Kilduff was active in the Kiwanis Club, the Natural Bridge Park Association, and the Buckhorn Scenic Trails Association. He was also an admitted recovering alcoholic and often spoke to students and civic groups not only about his experience with President Kennedy but of his experiences with alcoholism and his recovery.
Rosemary Kilduff preceded her husband in death and is buried in the Proctor Cemetery in Lee County, Kentucky, across the Kentucky River from Beattyville.
Kilduff died in retirement at a
nursing home
A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...
in Beattyville at age 75 in March 2003 . He is buried in
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
in Arlington, Virginia.
References
;Inline citations
;Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Malcolm Kilduff oral historyMalcolm Kilduff oral history videoat ArlingtonCemetery.net, an unofficial website
Kennedy's Air Force One*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilduff, Malcolm
1927 births
2003 deaths
American male journalists
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Harvard University alumni
Princeton University alumni
Kennedy administration personnel
Journalists from New York City
Journalists from Kentucky
Military personnel from New York City
People from Arlington County, Virginia
People from Lee County, Kentucky
Writers from Staten Island
People associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy
White House Press Secretaries
20th-century American journalists
Washington-Liberty High School alumni