Story by KELLI FUQUA HART
November 22, 1963 marks the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In front of a Dallas mob of supporters and patriots, Kennedy was killed within a matter of seconds. The details of this horrific event, and speculation of how it was executed, have been the subject of lectures, articles and press for decades.
From alleged conspiracy theories to suspicions of a scandalous cover-up, thousands upon thousands of articles have been authored offering details on JFK’s death. From eyewitness accounts to the alleged assassin, or assassins, according to some, to every other intricate and potential possible twist or turn of the event imaginable, somewhere a story has been written.
Now, exactly 50 years later, more articles will be going to print as the Nation remembers this horrific day in history and honors President Kennedy in anniversary.
For some, these anniversary articles will be a good read over coffee and will then make their way to the trash. But for Ocala resident Mary Wise Fuqua, it will be just another chapter in a scrapbook her grandmother started putting together for her in January of 1964.
Between each worn cover are over 200 pages of authentic newspaper and magazine clippings from various Florida newspapers and periodicals. Fuqua’s grandmother carefully pasted each, intricate sliver of print to its corresponding page, binding it with a single rope strand.
Handwritten descriptions, although somewhat faded, were left by Fuqua’s grandmother as a way to navigate throughout the timeline of events, page by page.
Today, 50 years after JFK’s death, this book has become invaluable to Fuqua, not only because it was created and documented by her grandmother, but also because of the history it keeps. This scrapbook is a rare collection of five decades’ worth of writings and notations that most will never see in its entirety.
Fuqua’s grandmother was amongst a small group of JFK scrapbookers, making these types of artifacts priceless. For those in the market for such rare collections, expect to spend anywhere from $400 up. Some books currently listed on Ebay are upwards of $1000.
Fuqua holds a gem that she will pass down for generations to come in her hands. There won’t be any Ebay listings for her book anytime in the near future.
