Diane, David, middle, and Mike Dozier pose inside a mock-up of the late President John F. Kennedy’s Air Force One at the Frontiers of Flight Museum. On Nov. 22, 1963, Diane and David Dozier stopped at Love Field to watch Air Force One land while en route to the hospital for the birth of their son.
November 22, 1963 was filled with excitement because we were going to have a baby.
We called our doctor and he said he’d like us to come by his office, which was near Love Field. When we got there, he said the baby’s’ arrival was imminent, so he told us to go to St. Paul Hospital and he’d meet us there.
On the way there, we went by Love Field and Air Force One had just landed with President Kennedy aboard. So we stopped, got out and had a look at Air Force One. It was pretty exciting.
We left, went to St. Paul Hospital, checked in and everything was good. The nurses came and took Diane to the delivery room. After a while, somebody came to me and said, ‘I think something is wrong with the parade. I think President Kennedy has been shot.’ When I told Diane, both of us were pretty distraught about it.
Later, I walked into the room again and told her that President Kennedy had died.
President Kennedy was very close to us emotionally because he was the first Catholic president. We were very proud to have him as a president. It meant a lot to us, so it was a very shocking moment when he was killed. But the biggest emotion other than sadness was fear.
Dallas was very scared that day. Here we were with a new baby, and we didn’t know what was going to happen next.
We were going to name our new baby John Fitzgerald. But some members of my family were named Mike and the name Mike prevailed over John Fitzgerald Dozier.
Every November 22nd that comes around in our lives brings back memories of what happened that day and the fear that we had and we’ll never forget that. We think about that and we think about the baby, Mike, who is now 50 years old. We were very joyous about having a child. He’s been a great son and we’re very proud of him, but we still remember what happened on that day. We remember it with reverence.
