Jerry Haynes. Photo courtesy of Woodrow Wilson High School via Facebook.

It was Nov. 22, 1963.

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Then-President John F. Kennedy was traveling around the country in his campaign for the 1964 election. On this day in 1963, Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, were in Dallas.

They rode in a convertible with Gov. John Connally and his wife, Nellie, from Love Field Airport to the Trade Mart, where Kennedy was scheduled to speak at a luncheon.

The motorcade arrived downtown after noon. As the car passed the Texas School Book Depository, shots began.

A bullet pierced the president’s neck, and the governor was hit in the back. They were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Little could be done for Kennedy, who was pronounced dead at 1 p.m.

Woodrow Wilson High School alumnus Jerry Haynes was at Dealey Plaza when the president was shot. Haynes, who graduated in 1944, was known as “Mr. Peppermint” on WFAA Channel 8 for years. And he was talking on the air within 15 minutes of the shooting, explaining the situation as an eyewitness reporter.

Haynes died in 2011 at age 84 from complications due to Parkinson’s.

The police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald as the shooter. But as he was being transferred to the county jail, local nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot him at point-blank range, and Oswald died two hours later at Parkland.