Q: Over the years, you've kept a pretty low profile. Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald is the second daughter of Porter and her first husband Lee Harvey Oswald. Reporters came over and she would tell us, "Shhhh, go in the other room.". And I realize that I'm kind of cold about it, so how do I tell them? Marina Oswald with children June and Rachel. Lee Harvey Oswalds youngest daughter, Rachel, was only one month old in 1963 when her father allegedly killed President Kennedy, and was shot to death himself. Twenty-eight years later, she granted this TV interview. Raised by her stepfather, Rachel Oswald Porter didnt know who her birth father was as a young child. He tried to after the arrest but everybody discounted it. But you have to understand that, aside from what role he had in the assassination, there's the issue of what role he had in our family. I want to make sure they understand why I'm so matter-of-fact about it. Records do not show who conceived the idea to invite Oswald to study at U-M, only that the person was a member of First Presbyterian who also taught at the English Language Institute. Without any sources, national news outlets began reporting that two women students allegedly attacked Oswald in a campus building. He said things when we were together like he really wanted to have children because "that would be the blood of Lee Harvey Oswald that was flowing through the kids.". Dixie DeaApril 28, 2004 in JFK Assassination Debate. If they could prove somehow that he was innocent, he'd still not be a hero, he'd be a martyr. The first of its kind in the country, the ELI was established to provide instruction and support for international students who speak English as a second language. She has always felt really bogged down by it. Copyright 2023 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes, List of States in the US, Alphabetical list of States in the U.S., and Abbreviation of States in United States. June is quieter about her own marriage, which ended in 1992. Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1939 to Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Sr. (18961939) and Marguerite Frances Claverie (19071981). Robert Oswald died of a heart attack two months before Lee was born. She didn't feel like Kenneth was her dad. I'm convinced that your mother and Priscilla had a sexual relationship." It's not a matter of being ashamed, it's a matter of wanting to be judged as June Oswald and not "the daughter of Lee Harvey Oswald.". Obviously, if I'd wanted to share that I would have told everyone a long time ago. A: I've always called him that. In the spring of 1961, Lee Oswald met Marina Prusakova at a dance in Minsk, Belarus. But I still have problems in that area, because I date a lot. Rachel loved listening to that. Priscilla was a CIA asset, IMHO, as was June Cobb in Cuba. _________________________________________. I don't know if it's the interview you mean but I have a copy of one with Rachael from 1995 from a publication called 'Texas Monthly'. The law said that if they felt that way, then those documents needed to be turned over to the Assassination Records Review Board and those folks would review the records and either concur, release them in blacked out state or release them entirely. I have to admit that when I heard that he used to play with me all the time, that was a nice feeling. Please tell a good story, she told reporters. She no longer had reason to doubt her grandiose visions, her place in history. I have to remind Rachel that this is the man who beat our mother, who didn't provide for his children. I answered every letter, rightly or wrongly feeling it the obligation of my ministry to do so. While married to Lee Harvey Oswald, she gave birth to her firstborn daughter called June Lee on 15th I usually end up telling people that I'm seeing very often. The wall build around Oswald's family women was intense after Dallas. WebMarina Nikolayevna Oswald had two daughters, a 21-month-old toddler and an infant born just five weeks before the assassination. In a February 26 ceremony in Rackham Assembly Hall, Oswald received an engraved U-M certificate alongside her classmates. 1.65 m). Mostly I feel bad that Lee was never able to tell his story. But anonymity exacted a curious price of its own, as June faced myriad graceless references to her father, mother and family. He was 99. And we got to President Kennedy and I was told to go across the hall during that one. If I want to sell a picture to a magazine or a newspaper and protect myself financially, I am going to continue to do that.". We didn't use the Oswald name, and it didn't come, up a lot around the house except when reporters would call It was always a big deal in November, when it was very stressful in the house. WebAbout one year after Lee Harvey Oswald returned from the Soviet Union with his new Soviet wife and young daughter, he became famous when he was arrested on suspicion of killing President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. I know that in my life, Lee wasn't a good man. Mailer is such a great writer; I was just so enthralled. Very interesting. Marina Oswald spent hours before the Warren Commission in early 1964. Because some people have called me and said, "I knew your father and he really loved you." Baker said the city of New Orleans, where Oswald was born, was central to their relationship. Marina kept to her wordafter the days surrounding the assassination, neither June nor Rachel was ever allowed to see their grandmother again. Records: 281. A: It's only in recent years that I've started to get into all that, mostly as part trying to get the records released. An obituary in the Wichita Falls Times Record News reported the elder Oswald was 83 at the time of his death. He beat my mother. I didn't break down and cry or anything. The strongest reaction to Oswalds enrollment came from the people who were sponsoring her visit: the 2,300-member congregation of First Presbyterian Church. ", There was no expression of remorse, no regret, only an unceasing drive to carry on, fight on, despite the abandonment of her family and friends. In Dallas, Porter gave birth to a second daughter, Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald. I believe he's the first writer-researcher to get interviews with sources in the Russian Government and so this is an opportunity to shed new light on the subject from an area that has never been explored in any meaningful depth. Oswald with ELI Director Catford on graduation day in February 1965. Still, the help for Oswald paled compared to the support for the widows and children of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. In 1963, after the assassination of President Kennedy, Oswald was arrested. I tell her, "Rachel, for all we know, we could have been living in the streets." WebFor years, the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald has avoided cameras while she tries to live a quiet life in Rockwall, northeast of Dallas. When my mother came on and this interview went so badly, I decided I really wanted to rebut. Within weeks, donations topped $12,000 and by early 1964 would grow to $70,000 the equivalent of nearly $600,000 today. It was the committees hope to keep the matter from becoming public information in order that Mrs. Oswalds opportunity to review the matter objectively would not be lost, he said. My boyfriend would sneak down to Priscilla's basement and read all her old files. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Are you able to maintain the same detachment when you see that? They had no idea their church had offered to host her, to the point of leaders offering to pay for her transportation, housing and coursework out of their own pockets. For all I know it's still tapped. I think her physical health and mental health have been damaged in recent years over all of the pressures put on her.Q: After all this time?A: Part of it was the big anniversary, the 30th. I also had an interview for Rachel Oswald, but haven't located it. There's always been this little group that's followed us -- Mom, Rachel and me -- and calls us and is fascinated by anything surrounding us. We lived in poor housing or were taken in by others. Porter still lives with her second husband Kenneth, however in private, and is afraid to go out in public. Porter was born in the city of Molotovsk, in Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the northwest of the USSR. Browse 22 June Lee Oswald had two children, Rachel and June the. ", I said I appreciate it, but I really don't get involved in that. I don't blame him for not being here for me. Q: Where do you stand today as far as your perception of what really happened out there in Dealey Plaza? Are you able to maintain the same detachment when you see that?A: The first time I saw it I was very upset, but it gets to the point where it almost becomes unreal, this movie you're watching that has very little to do with you as a person. A few months later the young family moved back to the United States. Q: How did you feel about being singled out?A: I remember what I did during that time-out was, I plotted how I could run for class president and win! John F. Kennedy, on November 24, 1963, as Oswald was being transferred to a county jail. Well, that's what Rachel wants to believe. My secretary in my last job put two and two together based on one of those articles. Ann Arbor police and campus officials vehemently denied the reports; Oswald herself told them she had not been assaulted in any way, physically or verbally. When my mother came on and this interview went so badly, I decided I really wanted to rebut. She uses her stepfathers name, Porter, to avoid unwanted attention from being related to an infamous character. "It is my own opinion that she is out right now to make as much money as she can on her relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald," he told the Warren Commission. She was the aggrieved. She discovered his true identity while sifting through newspaper clippings and mementos in the attic. Do I need to be more compassionate' about it? ", Under the watch of the Secret Service, the grieving widow and her children stayed with Marguerite at the Inn of the Six Flags Motel outside Dallas. Wish there were more, by the family of Lee. My boyfriend would sneak down to Priscilla's basement and read all her old files. My father is Kenneth Porter, the man I grew up with, the man who was there for my mother and Rachel and me.Q: And if someone were to show scientifically that Lee Oswald was or wasn't involved, that wouldn't make a difference to you?A: It would make a difference in the sense of justice being served. I know some people can remember vividly like it was yesterday, but I don't do that - even about yesterday. So I called my staff in, a group of 10 or so, and I said: "Yes, that is me in the article. So if I'm able to be detached or seem cold and unemotional about it, it's because I look at Lee in those terms.Q: I assume you've seen the footage of Lee being shot by Jack Ruby. I can tell you that I am very excited about the book in concept. "I am the strongest person in this tragedy because I have lost everything," she told one journalist who came knocking a decade after the assassination. Tho I have been told that both daughters have been burned. So I never connected it as a big negative or anything. One of the latest authors to wade into the conspiracy waters is Norman Mailer, whose book "Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery" will be published next month. Cookie Policy There were times when we didn't have milk to drink. So I ended up supporting him. They first met last April in Washington. Tags: Assassination, Conspiracy, JFK, Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marina Oswald, Television, L.D.C. Judith Baker, author of "Me and Lee - How I came to know, love, and lose Lee Harvey Oswald," presents an article at a symposium on Sat. A: Yes, I'm also very excited about that. She was born after her family moved to Dallas from Russia. The word Oswald was stamped in red ink over photographs of the two girls. There's always been this little group that's followed us - Mom, Rachel and me-and calls us and is fascinated by anything surrounding us. [3] They married six weeks later and had a When I was reading the interview with June and she made the comment abouty getting the, call from someone who had written a song at first I was a little jarred. My biggest concern was that people at the office had my home address and phone number and I didn't want it leaked to The National Enquirer I have two small children, I'm divorced, I didn't want people to harass the kids. If she were in contact with my children nowI do not want her to cripple them.". "She never knew when we'd run into someone, and she didn't want us to look like poor white trash"' June says simply. Moreover, Porter still lives with her second husband Kenneth, however in private, and is afraid to go out in public. It was a statement she memorialized by etching it in copper. Q: And if someone were to show scientifically that Lee Oswald was or wasn't involved, that wouldn't make a difference to you? I went on a car trip up to the house I had lived in with Lee, Lee's boarding house, another house Mom had lived in with Lee that's still standing, the path of the motorcade, where the bullets hit.Q: How did you feel about that?A: It was -- unusual. Anyway, the only person I knew up there was Priscilla Johnson McMillan, who wrote my mother's book. She copied it and put it on all my staff's desks. My secretary in my last job put two and two together based on one of those articles. Anyone can read what you share. Given everything above, you'd probably expect his return to be announced by dozens of men in dark glasses bundling him out the airport and into a mobile interrogation chamber. And then she was gone. Obviously, if I'd wanted to share that I would have told everyone a long time ago. So l never connected it as a big negative or anything. But she did. I felt they manipulated her and made her look foolish. He challenged his church the oldest in Ann Arbor to be politically and socially relevant.. Nonetheless, during several interviews over the past year, she reports being content. I have a copy of an earlier interview with June from 1983. A week later, Campbell met with his congregation and explained the executive committees thinking. A few men sent letters to the ELI office in hopes of striking up a romantic relationship with Oswald. Mailer is such a great writer; I was just so enthralled. ___________________________________________, Reminds me of Elvis Costello's song "Watching The Detectives.". But see, I'm matter-of-fact about a lot in my life. I don't know if I could've done it and kept my sanity: two small children, don't speak the language, dirt poor, everybody in the country pointing their finger at you -- hating you in some cases. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. A: Mom kept us together. And then, they tell a story about how after that I stood up in front of the whole class and said, "My father shot the President." Q: What are your thoughts on Norman Mailer's new book?A: I don't have a comment on it as far as its conclusions because I haven't read them, but I did start the book. Just in recent years; but yes. He was not a communisthe was a Marxist, Baker said, explaining that Oswald agreed with the theory of Marxism but did not participate in communist activities. Mom accused me one day of being ashamed of who I was. She said she came to know Oswald while the two worked on a plot to kill Fidel Castro during one summer when she was 19. She is convinced that her phones are tapped by the Secret Service and the Secret Service wants to kill her. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Lee Harvey Oswald and Marina Oswald in 1963, as they prepared to leave Russia for the United States. U-M has had its share of students with famous family ties often parents who are high-profile politicians, Hollywood stars and corporate CEOs. She relied upon Russian interpreters during interviews with the Secret Service, FBI and the Warren Commission that investigated Kennedys assassination. Marina Nikolayevna Oswald had two daughters, a 21-month-old toddler and an infant born just five weeks before the assassination. Oct. 19, 2013 at Loyola University in New Orleans. The couple wed "We have to get the Government to move before it's too late.". WebAudrey Marina Rachel. Q: How old were you then?A: It would have been, like, first grade. WebIn the show Quantum Leap (1989), there was an episode titled "Lee Harvey Oswald,", which was a 2-hour episode, and showed main character Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) leaping into Oswald's life at various points of significance between 1957 and 1963, beginning in 1963 in Oswald's yard, where Marina is taking the famous photograph of Now, Mom does articles that she doesn't bother to tell me she's doing, and sometimes my name comes up. You have permission to edit this article. Your email address will not be published. Social justice drove Campbell, and he urged worshippers to engage with the world to right its wrongs. Church leaders had suggested to Oswald that she use an assumed name when coming to Ann Arbor, but she declined. Just as many had sympathy and compassion for Oswald, others believed she was somehow complicit in her husbands killing of the president. Somehow those boxes came down and she was reading, and I guess she felt it was time to tell us. Now and then, she would receive calls from television or newspaper reporters seeking to interview the mother of the assassin, the self-described "mother in history." But you know, just because you're hanging out with a weird group - they could have set him up, and he could have had no idea what was going on that day. She is very grateful to the Institute and to the Church.. Upon entering public school, June took the surname of her stepfather, Kenneth Porter, who married Marina in 1965. Accused Assassin of President John F. Kennedy. I always feel torn by whether I'm required to tell somebody about my history. When money ran low, she sold a letter or document connected to Oswald or an article of his clothing. Click "Submit" to let the Reveille's student journalists know. Hey Dixie! His oldest daughter, June, I believe attended the Univ. of Texas and graduated first in her class or very high in her class. Shes made some TV app (Other than Russian, I dont know any other language, she testified. But it was so funny because Mom talked to them for - I mean, nobody noticed that the date wasn't there! Six weeks And we got to President Kennedy and I was told to go across the hall during that one. There were times when we didn't have milk to drink. She however remarried two years after Oswalds murder. So she became a sort of tourist attraction. Why are 40+ guests suddenly reading this very old thread, as well as a smaller but still significant number reading an old thread on Marina? A: The last two years have been very stressful, because she started doing things that she hasn't let us know about, then all of a sudden I hear about it or see it on TV. They said it would depreciate the value of their home. The way I finally woke up was, one night he said, "I'm gonna sell an article to Penthouse or Playboy" -- I forget which -- "and it's about your mother. Rachel felt differently. And there have been public hearings there and in Dallas and Boston. Porter is 81 years old. She was born after her family moved to Dallas from Russia. She didn't want to listen to anyone. Whom do you really think of as dad? I don't know if I could've done it and kept my sanity: two small children, don't speak the language, dirt poor, everybody in the country pointing their finger at you -hating you in some cases. He shared what it was like for First Presbyterian to have been in the spotlight helping Oswald and of the letters that arrived on his desk. Porter stands at a height of 5 ft 5 in (Approx. Citing an extensive collection of government records and personal accounts, Baker argued the governments investigations of President John F. Kennedys assassination, of which Oswald was charged, were flawed. She was 23, neatly dressed in a skirt, sweater and winter coat, and looking like a graduate student with books tucked under her arm. We regard Mrs. Oswald as a typical institute student, said ELI Director John C. Catford when her enrollment was announced. I didn't really want to be the center of gossip in this whole building. Two Lutheran ministers had agreed to conduct the service at the request of the Reverend Louis Saunders, an interdenominational Christian minister. A: Yes. From The New York Times Magazine April 30, 1995. We are very close -- except when these kinds of things come up. A: I do. I don't think it's relevant to anything we do here and I appreciate you keeping it to yourself." Porter married Oswald during his temporary defection to the Soviet Union and emigrated to the United States with him. She should send James Files a letter. Send her back to Texas and if she felt any sorrow at all for the horrible thing her husband did to Jackie and all of the decent citizens of the United States, she would go back to Russia (where she belongs), said a writer from the Upper Peninsula. 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