DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there are moments in history that arrive without warning — no drumroll, no time to prepare — and November 22, 1963, was one of those moments. Near this very point, in Dallas, Texas, a ceremony took place that nobody had planned, in circumstances nobody would have wished for.
Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office as the 36th President of the United States. And just like that, history turned on its axis. The setting wasn't a marble hall or a sunlit plaza.
It was the central compartment of Air Force One — the military aircraft assigned to the President — parked on the concrete ramp at Gate 28, east concourse of the terminal. Not exactly where you'd expect a nation to change hands. United States District Judge Sarah T.
Hughes, of Dallas, a friend of long standing to Johnson, was summoned to administer the oath. Summoned — because time, on that day, was not a luxury anyone had. And in doing so, Judge Hughes became the first woman in history to give the oath of office to a President of the United States.
That is a fact worth sitting with for a moment. At 2:38 in the afternoon, with Mrs. Johnson on his right and Mrs.
John F. Kennedy on his left, Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in. He also became the first Texan ever to hold the office of President of the United States.
And the stresses of that day did not pause for ceremony — executive duties were thrust upon him immediately, during the very flight to the Capitol. Now, none of this arrived in a vacuum. Johnson had been in public service for over thirty years.
Like some of his ancestors — including, the marker notes, a university president — he had taught school as a young man. He had served with distinction in Congress from 1937 to 1949, then in the United States Senate from 1949 to 1960, building what the marker calls an unsurpassed record as Senate Majority Leader. A man forged by decades of public life, standing in a cramped aircraft cabin, the weight of a nation settling onto his shoulders at 2:38 p.m. on a November afternoon in Dallas.
That's how it happened. Right here.
What the marker says
Near this point on November 22, 1963, Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office as 36th President of the United States. He is the first Texan to hold the office of President. The ceremony was held in the central compartment of "Air Force One," the military aircraft assigned to the President. The plane was parked on the concrete ramp at Gate 28, east concourse of this terminal. United States District Judge Sarah T. Hughes, of Dallas, a friend of long standing, was summoned to administer the oath. (Judge Hughes thus became the first woman in history to give the oath of office to a president of the United States. The new Chief Executive, with Mrs. Johnson on his right and Mrs. John F. Kennedy on the left, was sworn into office at 2:38 p.m.In the stresses of the day President Johnson had executive duties thrust upon him immediately during the flight to the Capitol. For over 30 years he had been in public service. Like some of his ancestors (including a university president) he had taught school, as a young man. He had served with distinction in Congress, 1937 to 1949; and in the U.S. Senate, 1949 - 1960, with an unsurpassed record as Senate Majority Leader.