Jan. 21, 1964 - Mrs. Marie Tippit promised the nation today she would try to use the more than $600,000 given in memory of her slain husband “as God would have us to.” Patrolman J.D. Tippit was shot to death on November 22, about an hour after President Kennedy was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with murder in both deaths. Mrs. Tippit held a news conference today at Dallas City Hall to thank the nation for its gifts. “I haven’t decided about the money yet, but I do have advisers,” she said. “I plan to stay where I am and raise the children the way I would have if he had been with us.” Dressed in black, Mrs. Tippit’s voice broke once, when she was asked how her children reacted to their father’s death. “Doing without their father has certainly been hard on them,” she said, “and it will be for quite some time.” She said she and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy had exchanged letters. She termed them “quite personal” and would not elaborate.
