Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the media has been awash in Kennedy-related coverage and reflections about this pivotal event in U.S. history.
However, a home movie from an earlier period in the Kennedy years was recently posted online. The footage, which is silent, was shot by James Patton. The brief film captures snippets of Kennedy’s campaign stop in Madison in 1960.
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Kennedy subsequently defeated Republican Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in U.S. history and became the nation’s 35th president.
He was shot and killed in Dallas three years later on a trip that many historians have regarded as campaign-style tour of Texas, looking ahead to his reelection effort in 1964.
The video was provided courtesy of Patton’s son, Vince.
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